The local market rallied in the opening hour of trade before declining throughout the first trading session of the week to end the day down 0.18% as investors sharply sold out of materials, energy and information technology stocks today. Utilities stocks led the market gains, with the sector adding 1.77% at the closing bell today.

Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) shares rallied today after the lithium developer announced it has resolved a dispute with earn-in partner Lilac Solutions over Lilac’s delivery of services at the company’s Kachi lithium project in Argentina.

NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF) shares also jumped today after the company’s CEO Mark Fitzgibbon said the health insurer is starting to see an uptick in customers switching due to competitor Medibank’s privacy and data breach.

The winning stocks for today’s session were AGL Energy (ASX:AGL) climbing 4.23%, Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) adding 3.76% and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) rallying almost 3.2%. And on the losing end, Nanosonics (ASX:NAN) tanked 12.23% today as brokers including Goldman Sachs responded negatively to the company’s recent trading update. Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) fell 4.55% today and Novonix (ASX:NVX) ended the day down 4.5%.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients today were Fortescue Metals Group  (ASX:FMG) , APA Group (ASX:APA) and CSL (ASX:CSL)

Commodities are still trading as a mixed bag this afternoon, with crude oil down 1.31% at US$79.06/barrel, gold is down just 0.2% at US$1746.56/ounce, while iron ore is up 2.05% at US$99.50/tonne. The decline in the price of oil impacted mining giants like Woodside today, with the oil and gas giant closing Monday’s session down 1.29%.

The Aussie dollar is trading slightly weaker this afternoon, buying 66.57 US cents, 56.14 British Pence, 93.43 Japanese Yen and 1 New Zealand dollar and 8 cents.

Asian equities had a tough start to the week today with markets closing lower amid a rise in COVID-related deaths and case numbers in China and Hong Kong prompting authorities to tighten restrictions in some areas of the region.