Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Utilities and Financials 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 St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 5.68% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.23 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 5.49% or 0.14 points to end at 2.69 and Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) was up 2.77% or 0.13 points to 4.83 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW), which lost 5.00% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.38 in late trade. Growthpoint Properties Australia (ASX:GOZ) declined 4.71% or 0.12 points to end at 2.43 and Region Re Ltd Unit (ASX:RGN) shed 3.88% or 0.09 points to 2.11.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 542 to 458 and 363 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 5.09% to 11.12.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.06% or 1.61 to $2,633.51 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $70.61 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $73.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.43% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.49% to 98.53.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 107.80.