Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.50%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Metals&Mining, IT and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.50%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which rose 4.37% or 0.09 points to trade at 2.15 at the close. Meanwhile, Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) added 2.82% or 0.57 points to end at 20.79 and Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) was up 2.43% or 0.03 points to 1.16 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 14.04% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.49 at the close. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) declined 7.67% or 0.74 points to end at 8.91 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was down 5.80% or 0.03 points to 0.53.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 804 to 393 and 373 ended unchanged.

Shares in Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) rose to 52-week highs; up 4.37% or 0.09 to 2.15. Shares in Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) fell to all time lows; losing 14.04% or 0.08 to 0.49.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 6.05% to 11.48 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.40% or 8.15 to $2,041.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.35% or 1.00 to hit $72.81 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.23% or 0.97 to trade at $77.79 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.20% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.37% to 96.76.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 102.21.