Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials, Consumer Staples and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR), which rose 7.34% or 0.340 points to trade at 4.970 at the close. Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API) added 6.22% or 0.120 points to end at 2.050 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was up 6.12% or 0.030 points to 0.520 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Breville Group Ltd (AX:BRG), which lost 5.09% or 0.380 points to trade at 7.090 in late trade. Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM) declined 3.66% or 0.890 points to end at 23.410 and Ten Network Holdings Ltd (AX:TEN) shed 2.94% or 0.005 points to 0.165.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 543 to 485 and 121 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 7.29% to 17.499.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.83% or 8.80 to $1069.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.61% or 0.59 to hit $37.63 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.92% or 0.34 to trade at $37.95 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 1.10% to 0.7208, while AUD/JPY fell 1.78% to 86.06.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.23% at 98.54.