Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.42%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Energy, Gold and Resources sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.42%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which rose 3.97% or 0.36 points to trade at 9.43 at the close. Meanwhile, Brickworks Ltd (ASX:BKW) added 3.21% or 0.70 points to end at 22.53 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was up 3.07% or 0.13 points to 4.37 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX), which fell 10.30% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.74 at the close. Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) declined 10.09% or 0.34 points to end at 3.03 and Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:RMS) was down 6.49% or 0.06 points to 0.87.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 822 to 506 and 389 ended unchanged.

Shares in Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) fell to 52-week lows; falling 10.09% or 0.34 to 3.03.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.00% to 12.49.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.20% or 3.45 to $1,750.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 2.49% or 1.90 to hit $74.38 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 2.46% or 2.06 to trade at $81.65 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.95% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 1.25% to 92.33.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 106.09.