Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.64%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.64%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ), which rose 7.53% or 0.350 points to trade at 5.000 at the close. Ausdrill Ltd (AX: ASL ) added 7.37% or 0.105 points to end at 1.530 and Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (AX: CWY ) was up 6.30% or 0.110 points to 1.855 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Viva Energy Group Ltd (AX: VEA ), which lost 12.20% or 0.25 points to trade at 1.80 in late trade. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ) declined 8.77% or 1.130 points to end at 11.760 and Medibank Private Ltd (AX: MPL ) shed 5.78% or 0.160 points to 2.610.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 669 to 452 and 333 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 4.49% to 17.553.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.34% or 4.20 to $1218.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.02% or 0.58 to hit $57.26 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.45 to trade at $67.21 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7306, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 82.42.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 96.41.