Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.40%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Energy and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.40%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Elders Ltd (ASX:ELD), which rose 17.48% or 1.08 points to trade at 7.26 at the close. Meanwhile, Boral Ltd. (ASX:BLD) added 4.90% or 0.23 points to end at 4.92 and AUB Group Ltd (ASX:AUB) was up 3.12% or 0.87 points to 28.74 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX:TPG), which fell 10.92% or 0.60 points to trade at 4.86 at the close. Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) declined 3.76% or 0.04 points to end at 1.02 and Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE) was down 3.58% or 0.20 points to 5.39.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 697 to 477 and 313 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.94% to 12.58.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.22% or 4.25 to $1,941.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.93% or 0.72 to hit $76.45 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.90% or 0.73 to trade at $80.70 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.03% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 96.55.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 105.70.