Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.21%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.21%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which rose 4.61% or 0.10 points to trade at 2.27 at the close. Meanwhile, Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX:IAG) added 4.46% or 0.21 points to end at 4.92 and Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) was up 3.15% or 0.04 points to 1.14 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which fell 25.74% or 0.39 points to trade at 1.12 at the close. Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) declined 20.80% or 0.39 points to end at 1.49 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 15.36% or 0.51 points to 2.81.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 779 to 490 and 382 ended unchanged.

Shares in Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) fell to all time lows; down 20.80% or 0.39 to 1.49.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.36% to 13.73 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.03% or 0.55 to $1,873.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.99% or 0.79 to hit $78.93 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.88% or 0.76 to trade at $85.63 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.07% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.70% to 91.51.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 103.56.