On the Australian stock market, investors found few gifts at the beginning of Christmas week, as the Omicron variant weighed on energy and bank stocks.
Rising numbers of infections from the latest coronavirus strain influenced travel prospects and the oil price fell by around three Percent down.
The benchmark S&P / ASX200 closed 11.8 points, or 0.16 percent, to 7292.2 points on Monday.
The Australian dollar bought 71.07 US cents at 1622 AEDT, lower from 71.64 US cents at the close of trading on Friday.
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