CANBERRA: Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, A-REITs and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower. At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.36%. The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which rose 5.93% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.680 at the close. Meanwhile, Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY) added 3.34% or 0.110 points to end at 3.400 and Japara Fpo (AX:JHC) was up 3.28% or 0.063 points to 1.968 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU), which fell 8.73% or 0.720 points to trade at 7.530 at the close. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) declined 8.42% or 0.400 points to end at 4.350 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) was down 3.52% or 0.040 points to 1.095.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 631 to 453 and 359 ended unchanged. The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.43% to 10.274. Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.34% or 4.15 to $1234.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.75% or 0.37 to hit $48.94 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.32 to trade at $51.44 a barrel. AUD/USD was up 0.30% to 0.7728, while AUD/JPY rose 0.18% to 86.95. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 99.97.
