Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Energy and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.56%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Infigen Energy (AX:IFN), which rose 4.88% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.645 at the close. Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) added 1.82% or 0.100 points to end at 5.600 and ARB Corporation Ltd (AX:ARB) was up 1.62% or 0.300 points to 18.790 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG), which lost 9.48% or 0.110 points to trade at 1.050 in late trade. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) declined 7.30% or 0.520 points to end at 6.600 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) shed 6.93% or 0.260 points to 3.490.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1209 to 186 and 201 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 25.99% to 15.180 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.28% or 3.70 to $1333.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.98% or 0.64 to hit $64.81 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.01% or 0.69 to trade at $67.89 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7934, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 87.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 89.02.