Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the IT, Healthcare and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.31% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (AX:APX), which rose 21.74% or 4.090 points to trade at 22.900 at the close. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) added 19.19% or 3.300 points to end at 20.500 and Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN) was up 12.40% or 0.450 points to 4.080 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which lost 11.02% or 0.400 points to trade at 3.230 in late trade. oOh!Media Ltd (AX:OML) declined 8.58% or 0.350 points to end at 3.730 and Lend Lease Group (AX:LLC) shed 6.27% or 0.890 points to 13.300.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 619 to 535 and 371 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 up 2.43% to 11.592.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.00% or 0.05 to $1332.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.23% or 0.13 to hit $57.13 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.22 to trade at $67.03 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.34% to 0.7151, while AUD/JPY rose 0.30% to 79.11.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 96.335.