Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.54%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Industrials and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.54% to hit a new 3-months low.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX), which rose 5.30% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.59 at the close. Meanwhile, Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) added 3.99% or 0.46 points to end at 11.99 and Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW) was up 3.60% or 0.14 points to 4.03 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 5.36% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.26 at the close. Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) declined 4.71% or 0.04 points to end at 0.81 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was down 3.80% or 0.07 points to 1.65.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 728 to 546 and 430 ended unchanged.

Shares in St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) fell to 5-year lows; down 5.36% or 0.02 to 0.26.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.93% to 13.80 a new 3-months high.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.12% or 2.30 to $1,930.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.83% or 0.61 to hit $73.25 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.82% or 0.64 to trade at $77.83 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.61% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.46% to 94.66.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 102.11.