Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the IT, Energy and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.64%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 7.53% or 0.350 points to trade at 5.000 at the close. Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL) added 7.37% or 0.105 points to end at 1.530 and Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (AX:CWY) was up 6.30% or 0.110 points to 1.855 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Viva Energy Group Ltd (AX:VEA), which lost 12.20% or 0.25 points to trade at 1.80 in late trade. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) declined 8.77% or 1.130 points to end at 11.760 and Medibank Private Ltd (AX:MPL) shed 5.78% or 0.160 points to 2.610.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 669 to 452 and 333 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 4.49% to 17.553.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.34% or 4.20 to $1218.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.02% or 0.58 to hit $57.26 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.45 to trade at $67.21 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7306, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 82.42.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 96.41.