Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA), which rose 18.06% or 0.410 points to trade at 2.680 at the close. Covermore Fpo (AX:CVO) added 5.67% or 0.080 points to end at 1.490 and Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY) was up 5.56% or 0.220 points to 4.180 in late trade.
Biggest losers included APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX:APO), which lost 35.07% or 2.890 points to trade at 5.350 in late trade. Japara Fpo (AX:JHC) declined 9.00% or 0.235 points to end at 2.375 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) shed 8.41% or 0.370 points to 4.030.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 626 to 479 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 6.91% to 12.397.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.68% or 9.15 to $1337.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.45% or 0.71 to hit $48.40 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.63% or 0.83 to trade at $50.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.52% to 0.7588, while AUD/JPY rose 0.14% to 76.55.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.47% at 94.92.