Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR), which rose 18.31% or 0.195 points to trade at 1.260 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 5.37% or 0.110 points to end at 2.160 and M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) was up 3.73% or 0.050 points to 1.390 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which lost 4.58% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.290 in late trade. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) declined 3.00% or 0.015 points to end at 0.485 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) shed 2.82% or 0.050 points to 1.725.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 520 to 466 and 348 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 6.53% to 12.648.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.70% or 8.75 to $1257.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.00% or 0.48 to hit $47.49 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.81% or 0.41 to trade at $50.51 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.13% to 0.7634, while AUD/JPY fell 0.79% to 84.17.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.53% at 99.06.