Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Information Technology, Healthcare and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.32%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), which rose 14.44% or 1.64 points to trade at 13.00 at the close. Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV) added 11.07% or 1.250 points to end at 12.540 and Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX:BDR) was up 9.26% or 0.025 points to 0.295 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Transfield Services Ltd (ASX:TSE), which lost 4.75% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.405 in late trade. Ozforex Grp (ASX:OFX) declined 4.12% or 0.10 points to end at 2.33 and ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ) shed 3.48% or 0.180 points to 4.990.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 318 to 274 and 35 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 3.81% to 12.876.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.09% or 1.10 to $1185.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May rose 1.03% or 0.48 to hit $47.05 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.48 to trade at $55.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.73% to 0.7831, while AUD/JPY rose 0.54% to 93.81.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.45% at 97.61.