Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Utilities, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.57%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR), which rose 15.00% or 0.060 points to trade at 0.460 at the close. Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC) added 4.76% or 0.100 points to end at 2.200 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was up 4.24% or 0.048 points to 1.167 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 37.50% or 0.765 points to trade at 1.275 in late trade. Spark Infrastructure Group (AX:SKI) declined 5.81% or 0.140 points to end at 2.270 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) shed 5.68% or 0.050 points to 0.830.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 730 to 495 and 351 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 1.99% to 15.309.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.29% or 3.90 to $1327.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.36% or 0.22 to hit $61.47 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.24 to trade at $64.61 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.19% to 0.7748, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 81.77.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 89.94.