Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT), which rose 5.72% or 1.810 points to trade at 33.480 at the close. Downer Edi Ltd (AX:DOW) added 5.05% or 0.240 points to end at 4.990 and ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) was up 5.05% or 0.260 points to 5.410 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which lost 6.30% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.710 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 6.29% or 0.330 points to end at 4.920 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) shed 6.21% or 0.185 points to 2.795.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 608 to 481 and 367 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.05% to 13.876 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.15% or 1.95 to $1342.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.36% or 0.15 to hit $41.95 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.32% or 0.14 to trade at $44.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7612, while AUD/JPY rose 0.21% to 77.72.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 96.17.