Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Utilities, IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which rose 7.48% or 0.320 points to trade at 4.600 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 5.60% or 0.140 points to end at 2.640 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) was up 3.49% or 0.040 points to 1.185 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which lost 4.97% or 0.160 points to trade at 3.060 in late trade. Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (AX:DMP) declined 4.75% or 2.910 points to end at 58.400 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) shed 4.41% or 0.120 points to 2.600.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 583 to 472 and 357 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 0.87% to 12.932.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.39% or 4.80 to $1225.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.33% or 0.18 to hit $54.01 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.17 to trade at $56.98 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7670, while AUD/JPY fell 0.14% to 86.30.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 99.70.