Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.15%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which rose 8.33% or 0.190 points to trade at 2.470 at the close. Meanwhile, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) added 6.95% or 0.185 points to end at 2.845 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) was up 5.42% or 0.200 points to 3.890 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL), which fell 11.21% or 22.860 points to trade at 181.020 at the close. Crown Ltd (AX:CWN) declined 5.16% or 0.620 points to end at 11.390 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) was down 4.31% or 0.055 points to 1.220.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 498 to 494 and 352 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.82% to 18.771 a new 1-month high.
Gold for June delivery was up 0.59% or 7.30 to $1251.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.15% or 0.06 to hit $39.66 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.02 to trade at $41.92 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.7560, while AUD/JPY fell 0.11% to 81.57.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 94.14.