Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.19%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.19%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX: ECX ), which rose 19.64% or 0.220 points to trade at 1.340 at the close. Regis Resources Ltd (ASX: RRL ) added 7.42% or 0.330 points to end at 4.780 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX: SAR ) was up 6.88% or 0.220 points to 3.420 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SVW ), which lost 7.36% or 1.380 points to trade at 17.380 in late trade. Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS ) declined 7.26% or 0.410 points to end at 5.240 and Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX: LNK ) shed 6.70% or 0.400 points to 5.570.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 816 to 378 and 392 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 7.85% to 16.085 a new 3-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.29% or 3.75 to $1314.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.82% or 0.44 to hit $53.06 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.23% or 0.76 to trade at $61.23 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.6942, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 75.22.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.697.