Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.32%

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

At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.32%.

The best performers of the session on the were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which rose 5.68% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.23 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:) added 5.49% or 0.14 points to end at 2.69 and Atlas Arteria (ASX:) was up 2.77% or 0.13 points to 4.83 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Cromwell Property Group (ASX:), which fell 5.00% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.38 at the close. Growthpoint Properties Australia (ASX:) declined 4.71% or 0.12 points to end at 2.43 and Region Re Ltd Unit (ASX:) was down 3.88% or 0.09 points to 2.11.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 542 to 458 and 363 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.09% to 11.12.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.07% or 1.90 to $2,633.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $70.62 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $73.81 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.44% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.50% to 98.54.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 107.79.