Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Telecommunication Services and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.09% to hit a new 3-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM), which rose 7.82% or 0.070 points to trade at 0.965 at the close. Skilled Group Ltd (ASX:SKE) added 5.54% or 0.080 points to end at 1.525 and Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX) was up 5.40% or 1.590 points to 31.060 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fairfax Media Ltd (ASX:FXJ), which lost 8.85% or 0.085 points to trade at 0.875 in late trade. Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX:BDR) declined 4.69% or 0.015 points to end at 0.305 and Panaust Ltd (ASX:PNA) shed 4.66% or 0.065 points to 1.330.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 296 to 268 and 46 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 2.47% to 16.458.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.31% or 3.80 to $1238.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 0.66% or 0.34 to hit $52.03 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.17 to trade at $58.85 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.39% to 0.7768, while AUD/JPY fell 0.64% to 92.29.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.20% at 94.66.