Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.77%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.77% to hit a new 1-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were ALS Ltd (AX: ALQ ), which rose 4.47% or 0.295 points to trade at 6.895 at the close. Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ) added 2.68% or 0.080 points to end at 3.060 and Sydney Airport Holdings Ltd (AX: SYD ) was up 2.48% or 0.180 points to 7.440 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Aconex Ltd (AX: ACX ), which lost 5.80% or 0.260 points to trade at 4.220 in late trade. Bega Cheese Ltd (AX: BGA ) declined 3.86% or 0.240 points to end at 5.970 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX: BPT ) shed 3.79% or 0.025 points to 0.635.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 661 to 405 and 388 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 7.42% to 13.182.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.13% or 1.61 to $1266.49 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.18% or 0.09 to hit $49.71 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.09 to trade at $52.42 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.20% to 0.7432, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 82.69.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.36.