At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.03%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 3.87% or 0.39 points to trade at 10.47 at the close. Meanwhile, Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) added 2.97% or 0.150 points to end at 5.200 and Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV) was up 2.83% or 0.79 points to 28.66 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which fell 16.15% or 2.95 points to trade at 15.32 at the close. Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) declined 4.89% or 0.075 points to end at 1.460 and Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA) was down 4.60% or 0.42 points to 8.71.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 928 to 536 and 381 ended unchanged.
Shares in Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA) fell to 52-week lows; falling 4.60% or 0.42 to 8.71.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.54% to 13.713 a new 1-month high.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.03% or 0.60 to $1811.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.70% or 0.59 to hit $85.42 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.54% or 0.47 to trade at $87.98 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.02% to 0.7183, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 82.18.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 95.645.
