Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Energy, Gold and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN), which rose 9.41% or 0.240 points to trade at 2.790 at the close. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX:CTD) added 7.46% or 1.320 points to end at 19.010 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) was up 7.02% or 0.250 points to 3.810 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 6.53% or 0.400 points to trade at 5.730 in late trade. Japara Fpo (AX:JHC) declined 6.19% or 0.125 points to end at 1.895 and Regis Healthcare Ltd (AX:REG) shed 4.65% or 0.210 points to 4.310.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 631 to 511 and 318 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 3.85% to 12.600.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.07% or 0.85 to $1257.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.63% or 0.34 to hit $54.33 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.37 to trade at $56.68 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.30% to 0.7692, while AUD/JPY rose 0.30% to 86.30.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 101.13.