Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the IT, Financials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 6.76% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.370 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) added 4.34% or 0.230 points to end at 5.530 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 4.16% or 0.170 points to 4.260 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR), which lost 4.81% or 0.310 points to trade at 6.130 in late trade. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) declined 4.53% or 0.210 points to end at 4.430 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) shed 4.33% or 0.170 points to 3.760.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 593 to 555 and 370 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 6.28% to 12.580.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.63% or 8.51 to $1342.69 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.61% or 0.29 to hit $47.77 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.50% or 0.27 to trade at $53.51 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.01% to 0.8056, while AUD/JPY rose 0.63% to 87.40.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 91.45.