Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Utilities, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M), which rose 6.50% or 0.240 points to trade at 3.930 at the close. Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL) added 5.98% or 0.070 points to end at 1.240 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 4.14% or 0.145 points to 3.645 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Flexigroup Ltd (AX:FXL), which lost 6.76% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.585 in late trade. Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (AX:MMS) declined 6.19% or 0.865 points to end at 13.105 and Woolworths Ltd (AX:WOW) shed 3.66% or 0.960 points to 25.290.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 628 to 577 and 385 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 1.90% to 12.122.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.24% or 3.03 to $1253.47 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.29% or 0.13 to hit $44.84 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.27% or 0.13 to trade at $47.24 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.10% to 0.7613, while AUD/JPY rose 0.02% to 84.51.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.91.