Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.35%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Metals&Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.35%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH), which rose 8.99% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.98 at the close. Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) added 4.71% or 0.04 points to end at 0.89 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was up 6.15% or 0.15 points to 2.59 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which lost 32.84% or 0.22 points to trade at 0.45 in late trade. Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) declined 9.76% or 0.61 points to end at 5.64 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) shed 7.89% or 0.46 points to 5.37.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 616 to 492 and 487 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 0.67% to 11.25.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.70% or 18.90 to $2,675.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.44% or 0.31 to hit $70.07 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.35% or 0.26 to trade at $73.61 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.21% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.69% to 101.29.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 105.00.