Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.15%.
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. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) added 6.95% or 0.185 points to end at 2.845 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) was up 5.42% or 0.200 points to 3.890 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL), which lost 11.21% or 22.860 points to trade at 181.020 in late trade. Crown Ltd (AX:CWN) declined 5.16% or 0.620 points to end at 11.390 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) shed 4.31% or 0.055 points to 1.220.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 498 to 496 and 349 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 2.82% to 18.771 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.59% or 7.30 to $1251.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.15% or 0.06 to hit $39.66 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.04 to trade at $41.90 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.08% to 0.7562, while AUD/JPY fell 0.07% to 81.60.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 94.14.