Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.78%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which rose 5.76% or 0.650 points to trade at 11.940 at the close. Viva Energy Group Ltd (AX:VEA) added 4.75% or 0.09 points to end at 1.99 and Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) was up 4.59% or 0.330 points to 7.520 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Independence Group NL (AX:IGO), which lost 7.71% or 0.300 points to trade at 3.590 in late trade. Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) declined 6.65% or 1.030 points to end at 14.450 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) shed 6.03% or 0.760 points to 11.840.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 705 to 438 and 332 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 2.70% to 17.000.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.24% or 2.90 to $1232.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.33% or 0.67 to hit $51.09 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.69% or 1.00 to trade at $60.04 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.7249, while AUD/JPY rose 0.42% to 82.06.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 96.790.