Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.07%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which rose 9.82% or 0.270 points to trade at 3.020 at the close. Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) added 7.58% or 0.310 points to end at 4.400 and Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) was up 3.07% or 0.160 points to 5.380 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which lost 23.08% or 1.020 points to trade at 3.400 in late trade. Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) declined 3.99% or 0.780 points to end at 18.770 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) shed 2.98% or 0.190 points to 6.180.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 672 to 587 and 349 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 0.67% to 12.069.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.41% or 5.30 to $1277.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.67% or 0.39 to hit $57.97 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.49% or 0.31 to trade at $63.42 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.18% to 0.7599, while AUD/JPY rose 0.37% to 85.73.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.31% at 93.10.