Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 9.91% or 0.105 points to trade at 1.165 at the close. Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) added 9.42% or 0.660 points to end at 7.670 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was up 9.09% or 0.055 points to 0.660 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which lost 12.38% or 0.263 points to trade at 1.857 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 3.62% or 0.175 points to end at 4.655 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) shed 3.18% or 0.075 points to 2.285.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 531 to 471 and 353 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 2.93% to 20.236.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.65% or 8.45 to $1286.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.97% or 0.47 to hit $49.03 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.41 to trade at $49.58 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.64% to 0.7442, while AUD/JPY rose 1.12% to 77.91.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.59% at 93.74.