Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Energy, Resources and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Panaust Ltd (ASX:PNA), which rose 40.00% or 0.490 points to trade at 1.715 at the close. Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) added 2.72% or 0.040 points to end at 1.510 and Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN) was up 2.03% or 0.060 points to 3.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caltex Australia Ltd (ASX:CTX), which lost 9.08% or 3.44 points to trade at 34.44 in late trade. Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX:BDR) declined 7.55% or 0.020 points to end at 0.245 and Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) shed 6.90% or 0.010 points to 0.135.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 409 to 164 and 44 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 9.00% to 14.966.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.52% or 6.30 to $1194.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.48% or 0.72 to hit $48.15 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.10 to trade at $56.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.43% to 0.7722, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 92.03.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 97.76.