Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.16%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Healthcare and Materials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.16%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC), which rose 6.94% or 0.63 points to trade at 9.71 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 6.12% or 0.05 points to end at 0.78 and Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) was up 5.23% or 3.01 points to 60.59 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA), which fell 7.10% or 0.55 points to trade at 7.20 at the close. Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) declined 6.81% or 2.29 points to end at 31.36 and Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX:IAG) was down 3.74% or 0.19 points to 4.89.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 682 to 648 and 373 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.55% to 12.11.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.23% or 4.40 to $1,925.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.68% or 0.54 to hit $79.14 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.63% or 0.54 to trade at $85.86 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.31% to 0.71, while AUD/JPY fell 0.51% to 91.76.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 101.81.