Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Utilities, Consumer Discretionary and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.63%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX:JBH), which rose 10.61% or 2.080 points to trade at 21.690 at the close. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) added 8.18% or 0.045 points to end at 0.595 and Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) was up 6.27% or 0.080 points to 1.355 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ansell Ltd (ASX:ANN), which lost 15.80% or 3.910 points to trade at 20.840 in late trade. Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG) declined 3.83% or 0.110 points to end at 2.760 and Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) shed 3.13% or 0.110 points to 3.410.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 518 to 464 and 170 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 3.08% to 17.412.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.03% or 0.30 to $1094.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.28% or 0.12 to hit $43.74 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.18% or 0.09 to trade at $49.15 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.74% to 0.7363, while AUD/JPY fell 0.43% to 91.80.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.08% at 97.75.