Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.67%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV), which rose 8.66% or 0.600 points to trade at 7.530 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 8.53% or 0.220 points to end at 2.800 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) was up 7.87% or 0.410 points to 5.620 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Austal Ltd (AX:ASB), which lost 8.26% or 0.100 points to trade at 1.110 in late trade. Isentia Group Ltd (AX:ISD) declined 6.53% or 0.220 points to end at 3.150 and Programmed Maintenance Services Ltd (AX:PRG) shed 4.23% or 0.075 points to 1.700.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 694 to 402 and 306 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 2.10% to 18.519.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.11% or 14.85 to $1353.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.49% or 0.24 to hit $49.23 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.28 to trade at $50.63 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.28% to 0.7514, while AUD/JPY rose 0.48% to 77.18.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.03% at 95.69.