Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.32%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Consumer Discretionary and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.32%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 14.35% or 0.16 points to trade at 1.24 at the close. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 12.75% or 0.07 points to end at 0.57 and ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX:ARB) was up 6.70% or 2.67 points to 42.52 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which lost 9.57% or 0.10 points to trade at 0.95 in late trade. Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX:SUL) declined 7.52% or 1.37 points to end at 16.86 and Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF) shed 6.14% or 0.39 points to 5.96.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 661 to 422 and 448 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 0.34% to 12.78.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.38% or 9.50 to $2,515.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.06% or 0.72 to hit $68.39 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.00% or 0.71 to trade at $71.77 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.03% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.47% to 95.31.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 101.35.