Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Telecoms Services and Gold sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG), which rose 8.10% or 0.265 points to trade at 3.535 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 6.19% or 0.190 points to end at 3.260 and Orora Fpo (AX:ORA) was up 5.81% or 0.150 points to 2.730 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Henderson Group PLC (AX:HGG), which lost 14.69% or 0.655 points to trade at 3.805 in late trade. APN News & Media Ltd (AX:APN) declined 10.65% or 0.475 points to end at 3.985 and CYBG PLC (AX:CYB) shed 9.52% or 0.435 points to 4.135.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 546 to 535 and 320 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 3.52% to 22.889.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.70% or 9.25 to $1331.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.23% or 0.11 to hit $47.53 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.05 to trade at $49.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.74% to 0.7408, while AUD/JPY fell 1.27% to 75.33.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.58% at 96.18.