Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the IT, Industrials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC), which rose 11.56% or 0.850 points to trade at 8.200 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) added 9.71% or 0.170 points to end at 1.920 and Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) was up 8.81% or 0.340 points to 4.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH), which lost 30.12% or 0.250 points to trade at 0.580 in late trade. Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) declined 7.76% or 0.360 points to end at 4.280 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT) shed 6.90% or 0.290 points to 3.910.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 487 to 449 and 262 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 1.07% to 22.175.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.57% or 6.90 to $1227.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.24% or 0.08 to hit $32.70 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.48% or 0.17 to trade at $35.27 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.08% to 0.7133, while AUD/JPY fell 0.78% to 80.62.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.15% at 97.98.