Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.23%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.23%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN ), which rose 5.47% or 0.17 points to trade at 3.28 at the close. Meanwhile, Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR ) added 3.70% or 0.08 points to end at 2.24 and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT ) was up 2.78% or 0.04 points to 1.48 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV ), which fell 15.92% or 5.26 points to trade at 27.78 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM ) declined 10.71% or 0.03 points to end at 0.25 and Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:NWL ) was down 9.94% or 3.02 points to 27.36.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 738 to 331 and 466 ended unchanged.

Shares in Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR ) rose to all time highs; rising 3.70% or 0.08 to 2.24.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 10.13% to 12.28 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.12% or 3.18 to $2,711.82 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.72% or 1.30 to hit $77.05 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.87% or 1.49 to trade at $81.25 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.21% to 0.61, while AUD/JPY fell 0.38% to 96.53.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 109.75.

Source: Investing.com