Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST), which rose 15.21% or 0.645 points to trade at 4.885 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 14.89% or 0.390 points to end at 3.010 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) was up 13.93% or 0.280 points to 2.290 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Insurance Australia Group Ltd (AX:IAG), which lost 2.48% or 0.145 points to trade at 5.705 in late trade. Caltex Australia Ltd (AX:CTX) declined 2.19% or 0.730 points to end at 32.610 and Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (AX:QBE) shed 2.10% or 0.260 points to 12.150.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 534 to 484 and 303 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 0.98% to 17.255.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.10% or 1.25 to $1244.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.95% or 0.46 to hit $49.08 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.39 to trade at $50.03 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.54% to 0.7328, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 78.38.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.33% at 94.21.