Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.22%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment , Utilities and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.22%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fairfax Media Ltd (AX: FXJ ), which rose 3.32% or 0.035 points to trade at 1.090 at the close. Tassal Group Ltd (AX: TGR ) added 2.69% or 0.110 points to end at 4.200 and Macquarie Atlas Roads Group (AX: MQA ) was up 2.62% or 0.150 points to 5.870 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ), which lost 4.93% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.890 in late trade. HT&E Ltd (AX: HT1 ) declined 3.81% or 0.070 points to end at 1.765 and Reliance Worldwide Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd (AX: RWC ) shed 3.69% or 0.140 points to 3.650.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 631 to 542 and 346 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 0.37% to 11.330.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.19% or 2.39 to $1278.11 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.41% or 0.21 to hit $52.05 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.16% or 0.09 to trade at $57.84 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7834, while AUD/JPY rose 0.38% to 89.07.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 93.57.