Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Utilities, Telecoms Services and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.30% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 5.59% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.210 at the close. Iron Mountain Inc (AX:INM) added 5.33% or 2.19 points to end at 43.26 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) was up 4.53% or 0.260 points to 6.000 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JB Hi-Fi Ltd (AX:JBH), which lost 8.00% or 2.250 points to trade at 25.860 in late trade. Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) declined 5.98% or 0.035 points to end at 0.550 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) shed 5.71% or 0.030 points to 0.495.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 731 to 495 and 333 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 21.501.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.75% or 9.90 to $1325.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.08% or 0.64 to hit $59.84 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.55 to trade at $63.34 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.24% to 0.7834, while AUD/JPY rose 0.14% to 85.15.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 90.01.