Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day and how the experts saw it.

The numbers: The sharemarket closed flat on Monday after an early morning rally that took the ASX 200 to a 20-day-high. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 1.6 points to 6789.9, or 0.02 per cent at close.

The tech sector slid 1.5 per cent after leading the sharemarket to four-month highs last week. The energy, telecommunications and healthcare sectors all dropped by 1 to 1.3 per cent.

However, materials and utilities bucked the trend, posting 1 per cent gains, and industrials closed 0.6 per cent in the green.

The lifters: Insurance Australia Group 5.9%, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield 5.2%, Steadfast Group 3.9%

The laggards: EML Payments -22.2%, Appen -15%, Polynovo -13.6%

The lowdown: It was good news on the travel front as Flight Centre reported smaller-than-expected losses in a trading update, cutting their loss forecast of between $195 and $225 million to $185 million for the 2022 financial year.

Flight Centre shares closed 3.2 per cent higher at $17.66 and buoyed the travel sector. Qantas gained 1.8 per cent to $4.59 and Corporate Travel Management was in the top five lifters, gaining 3.3 per cent to $18.85.

In more good news for peripatetic souls, Commsec predicted petrol prices would ease to $1.75 a litre within the next two weeks.

The materials sector gained 1 per cent after metals miner South32 reported it will meet 99 per cent of its FY22 cost guidance and hit record production at its WA bauxite mine. Shares in the miner improved 0.8 per cent to $3.56.