Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX), which rose 11.58% or 0.220 points to trade at 2.120 at the close. NIB Holdings (AX:NHF) added 9.82% or 0.560 points to end at 6.260 and Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (AX:DHG) was up 3.92% or 0.125 points to 3.315 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nufarm Ltd (AX:NUF), which lost 12.86% or 0.970 points to trade at 6.570 in late trade. News Corp B DRC (AX:NWS) declined 10.38% or 2.180 points to end at 18.820 and Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX:SGM) shed 8.48% or 1.370 points to 14.790.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 732 to 476 and 375 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 up 18.52% to 11.602.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.25% or 3.00 to $1216.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.07% or 0.05 to hit $67.58 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.19 to trade at $72.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.23% to 0.7279, while AUD/JPY fell 0.84% to 80.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 96.26.