Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the IT, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN), which rose 5.47% or 0.17 points to trade at 3.28 at the close. Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR) added 3.70% or 0.08 points to end at 2.24 and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) was up 2.78% or 0.04 points to 1.48 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV), which lost 15.92% or 5.26 points to trade at 27.78 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 10.71% or 0.03 points to end at 0.25 and Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:NWL) shed 9.94% or 3.02 points to 27.36.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 739 to 342 and 469 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 10.13% to 12.28 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.10% or 2.84 to $2,712.16 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.72% or 1.30 to hit $77.05 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.82% or 1.45 to trade at $81.21 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.21% to 0.61, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 96.55.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 109.75.