Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which rose 7.92% or 0.120 points to trade at 1.635 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) added 6.52% or 0.180 points to end at 2.940 and Woolworths Ltd (AX:WOW) was up 4.37% or 0.990 points to 23.650 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Santos Ltd (AX:STO), which lost 8.36% or 0.240 points to trade at 2.630 in late trade. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) declined 7.08% or 0.115 points to end at 1.510 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (AX:MFG) shed 6.41% or 1.600 points to 23.350.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 717 to 325 and 159 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 2.39% to 24.057.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.09% or 1.00 to $1089.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.83% or 0.56 to hit $29.84 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 3.25% or 0.95 to trade at $28.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.50% to 0.6898, while AUD/JPY rose 0.64% to 80.84.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 99.14.