Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Healthcare and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.45%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which rose 5.88% or 0.140 points to trade at 2.520 at the close. Meanwhile, Inghams Group Ltd (AX:ING) added 4.53% or 0.17 points to end at 3.92 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) was up 4.21% or 0.020 points to 0.495 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which fell 4.44% or 0.250 points to trade at 5.380 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) declined 4.53% or 0.150 points to end at 3.160 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) was down 3.99% or 0.145 points to 3.485.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 604 to 575 and 350 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.27% to 12.619.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.31% or 3.90 to $1245.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.73% or 0.51 to hit $69.44 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.47 to trade at $74.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7434, while AUD/JPY rose 0.18% to 83.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 94.36.