Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Consumer Staples and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.17% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL), which rose 12.37% or 0.230 points to trade at 2.090 at the close. Panaust Ltd (ASX:PNA) added 6.94% or 0.120 points to end at 1.850 and G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) was up 6.08% or 0.230 points to 4.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX), which lost 4.61% or 0.920 points to trade at 19.050 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) declined 3.35% or 0.070 points to end at 2.020 and Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:IPL) shed 3.32% or 0.130 points to 3.780.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 524 to 478 and 175 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 1.44% to 19.462.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.29% or 3.50 to $1185.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.35% or 0.20 to hit $59.59 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.43% or 0.28 to trade at $66.44 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.23% to 0.7912, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 94.86.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.09% at 94.99.