Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Energy and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.32%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which rose 8.33% or 0.190 points to trade at 2.470 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 6.81% or 0.130 points to end at 2.040 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was up 6.75% or 0.085 points to 1.345 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BWP Trust (AX:BWP), which lost 3.18% or 0.090 points to trade at 2.740 in late trade. Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX:SGM) declined 2.95% or 0.370 points to end at 12.190 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) shed 2.82% or 0.075 points to 2.585.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 576 to 480 and 316 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 10.01% to 9.708.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.49% or 5.85 to $1207.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.78% or 0.38 to hit $48.11 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.32 to trade at $51.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.37% to 0.7570, while AUD/JPY rose 0.35% to 86.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 100.97.