Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.36%.
The biggest gainers 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. 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.
Biggest losers included Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU), which lost 8.73% or 0.720 points to trade at 7.530 in late trade. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) declined 8.42% or 0.400 points to end at 4.350 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) shed 3.52% or 0.040 points to 1.095.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 631 to 453 and 359 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 5.43% to 10.274.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.34% or 4.15 to $1234.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, 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 0.29% to 0.7727, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 86.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 99.97.