Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials, Healthcare and Telecoms Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.18%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE), which rose 7.30% or 0.170 points to trade at 2.500 at the close. Meanwhile, Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) added 5.36% or 0.030 points to end at 0.590 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) was up 4.88% or 0.120 points to 2.580 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (AX:BEN), which fell 6.82% or 0.760 points to trade at 10.390 at the close. Spark Infrastructure Group (AX:SKI) declined 6.37% or 0.160 points to end at 2.350 and News Corp B DRC (AX:NWS) was down 5.74% or 1.080 points to 17.740.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 579 to 551 and 334 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.18% to 13.312.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.29% or 3.85 to $1314.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.33% or 0.70 to hit $52.02 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.93% or 0.58 to trade at $61.52 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7095, while AUD/JPY rose 0.36% to 78.03.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.468.