Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Utilities and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.07%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which rose 5.02% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.300 at the close. Greencross Ltd (AX:GXL) added 4.39% or 0.240 points to end at 5.710 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) was up 2.96% or 0.370 points to 12.850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Aveo Group (AX:AOG), which lost 10.98% or 0.335 points to trade at 2.715 in late trade. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:AAD) declined 3.02% or 0.060 points to end at 1.930 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) shed 2.61% or 0.015 points to 0.560.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 632 to 554 and 420 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 0.82% to 12.577.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.08% or 1.02 to $1255.38 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.09% or 0.47 to hit $43.48 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.03% or 0.47 to trade at $46.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.13% to 0.7578, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 84.33.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 96.97.