Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.69%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.69%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 18.75% or 0.33 points to trade at 2.09 at the close. Meanwhile, Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) added 8.16% or 0.08 points to end at 1.06 and Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) was up 7.45% or 0.12 points to 1.73 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB), which fell 10.69% or 0.88 points to trade at 7.35 at the close. Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) declined 3.32% or 0.10 points to end at 2.91 and Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) was down 3.53% or 0.02 points to 0.41.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 600 to 488 and 485 ended unchanged.

Shares in Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 18.75% or 0.33 to 2.09. Shares in Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) fell to 5-year lows; falling 3.32% or 0.10 to 2.91.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.91% to 11.90.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.27% or 7.20 to $2,653.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.65% or 0.46 to hit $71.46 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.45 to trade at $74.14 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.33% to 98.26.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 100.46.