Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.18%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials , Healthcare and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.18%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ), which rose 7.30% or 0.170 points to trade at 2.500 at the close. Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX: SIG ) added 5.36% or 0.030 points to end at 0.590 and Alumina Ltd (AX: AWC ) was up 4.88% or 0.120 points to 2.580 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (AX: BEN ), which lost 6.82% or 0.760 points to trade at 10.390 in late trade. Spark Infrastructure Group (AX: SKI ) declined 6.37% or 0.160 points to end at 2.350 and News Corp B DRC (AX: NWS ) shed 5.74% or 1.080 points to 17.740.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 579 to 551 and 334 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.18% to 13.312.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.29% or 3.85 to $1314.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.35% or 0.71 to hit $52.01 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.95% or 0.59 to trade at $61.51 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7095, while AUD/JPY rose 0.36% to 78.03.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.468.