Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.02%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the IT, Telecoms Services and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.02%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX:IAG), which rose 5.94% or 0.25 points to trade at 4.46 at the close. Meanwhile, Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW) added 5.19% or 0.19 points to end at 3.85 and Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF) was up 3.91% or 0.20 points to 5.32 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which fell 22.18% or 0.26 points to trade at 0.93 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 15.02% or 0.99 points to end at 5.60 and Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) was down 13.62% or 0.24 points to 1.49.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 739 to 574 and 382 ended unchanged.

Shares in EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) fell to 5-year lows; losing 22.18% or 0.26 to 0.93.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.33% to 16.59.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.16% or 2.80 to $1,724.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.48% or 1.40 to hit $93.30 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.37% or 1.35 to trade at $97.03 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.20% to 94.39.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 106.60.