Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Utilities, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.26%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH), which rose 5.07% or 1.62 points to trade at 33.56 at the close. Meanwhile, EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) added 4.48% or 0.16 points to end at 3.73 and Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) was up 3.88% or 0.120 points to 3.210 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which fell 9.56% or 0.140 points to trade at 1.325 at the close. Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX:TWE) declined 6.93% or 0.640 points to end at 8.590 and Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) was down 6.04% or 0.055 points to 0.855.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 778 to 528 and 353 ended unchanged.
Shares in Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) rose to all time highs; gaining 3.88% or 0.120 to 3.210.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 20.92% to 16.547.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.29% or 5.20 to $1782.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 1.98% or 0.90 to hit $44.63 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 2.07% or 1.00 to trade at $47.25 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.05% to 0.7380, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 76.77.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 91.715.