Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Energy and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 5.22% or 0.270 points to trade at 5.440 at the close. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) added 3.32% or 0.520 points to end at 16.180 and CYBG PLC (AX:CYB) was up 2.58% or 0.145 points to 5.775 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG), which lost 39.81% or 0.323 points to trade at 0.487 in late trade. Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG) declined 8.77% or 0.250 points to end at 2.600 and Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API) shed 6.76% or 0.115 points to 1.585.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 660 to 538 and 372 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 9.15% to 13.630 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.32% or 4.00 to $1250.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.88% or 0.65 to hit $73.50 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.16% or 0.92 to trade at $78.31 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.36% to 0.7381, while AUD/JPY fell 0.44% to 81.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 94.48.