Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Energy, Resources and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), which rose 5.05% or 0.46 points to trade at 9.56 at the close. Iinet Ltd (ASX:IIN) added 4.00% or 0.340 points to end at 8.840 and Asaleo Care (ASX:AHY) was up 4.46% or 0.07 points to 1.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY), which lost 7.46% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.310 in late trade. Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) declined 7.00% or 0.090 points to end at 1.195 and Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) shed 6.63% or 0.055 points to 0.775.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 334 to 239 and 39 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 down 1.07% to 14.652.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.80% or 9.20 to $1161.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May fell 0.82% or 0.39 to hit $46.67 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract fell 0.72% or 0.40 to trade at $54.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.20% to 0.7650, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 92.69.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.34% at 100.37.