Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.17%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.17%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA ), which rose 6.39% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.915 at the close. Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC ) added 3.18% or 0.130 points to end at 4.220 and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: CUV ) was up 2.34% or 0.780 points to 34.170 in late trade.

Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM ), which lost 9.77% or 0.300 points to trade at 2.770 in late trade. Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX: ECX ) declined 4.84% or 0.075 points to end at 1.475 and Hub24 Ltd (ASX: HUB ) shed 3.85% or 0.450 points to 11.250.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 660 to 542 and 385 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 14.57% to 11.772.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.45% or 6.25 to $1406.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.16% or 0.09 to hit $57.60 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.13 to trade at $64.36 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.06% to 0.6984, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 75.67.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 96.850.