Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.53%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.53%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were TPG Telecom Ltd (AX: TPM ), which rose 3.32% or 0.250 points to trade at 7.770 at the close. Pact Group Holdings Ltd (AX: PGH ) added 3.19% or 0.110 points to end at 3.560 and Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ) was up 2.95% or 0.110 points to 3.840 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX: EHL ), which lost 7.81% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.295 in late trade. Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ) declined 6.97% or 0.170 points to end at 2.270 and Bingo Industries Ltd (AX: BIN ) shed 6.30% or 0.150 points to 2.230.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 632 to 488 and 355 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 0.14% to 15.877.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.01% or 0.10 to $1233.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.59% or 0.37 to hit $62.77 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.48% or 0.35 to trade at $72.48 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7190, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 81.42.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 96.28.