Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.40%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.40%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which rose 4.17% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.62 at the close. Meanwhile, EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) added 3.76% or 0.03 points to end at 0.69 and News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS) was up 3.63% or 0.94 points to 26.84 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Adbri Ltd (ASX:ABC), which fell 22.01% or 0.41 points to trade at 1.43 at the close. Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:CGC) declined 13.42% or 0.31 points to end at 2.00 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was down 8.22% or 0.06 points to 0.67.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 852 to 423 and 369 ended unchanged.

Shares in Adbri Ltd (ASX:ABC) fell to 5-year lows; losing 22.01% or 0.41 to 1.43. Shares in Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:CGC) fell to 5-year lows; down 13.42% or 0.31 to 2.00. Shares in St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) fell to 5-year lows; losing 8.22% or 0.06 to 0.67.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 4.78% to 19.57.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.64% or 10.55 to $1,659.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.06% or 0.90 to hit $85.55 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.10% or 1.01 to trade at $92.64 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.82% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.71% to 92.81.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 112.79.