Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK), which rose 4.09% or 0.130 points to trade at 3.310 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 3.34% or 0.100 points to end at 3.090 and Henderson Group PLC (AX:HGG) was up 2.89% or 0.110 points to 3.920 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR), which lost 4.72% or 0.520 points to trade at 10.490 in late trade. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) declined 3.98% or 0.070 points to end at 1.690 and Healthscope (AX:HSO) shed 3.96% or 0.090 points to 2.180.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 631 to 480 and 356 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 10.12% to 12.336.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.12% or 1.55 to $1249.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.10% or 0.05 to hit $50.55 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.21% or 0.11 to trade at $53.42 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7602, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 84.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 100.27.