Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Consumer Discretionary and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ansell Ltd (AX:ANN), which rose 18.15% or 3.570 points to trade at 23.240 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) added 12.38% or 0.200 points to end at 1.815 and JB Hi-Fi Ltd (AX:JBH) was up 9.86% or 2.700 points to 30.080 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Aurizon Holdings Ltd (AX:AZJ), which lost 6.20% or 0.310 points to trade at 4.690 in late trade. Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) declined 5.90% or 0.340 points to end at 5.420 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) shed 4.28% or 0.125 points to 2.795.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 569 to 494 and 365 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 1.61% to 12.612.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.12% or 1.60 to $1344.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.90% or 0.40 to hit $44.89 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.72% or 0.34 to trade at $47.31 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.16% to 0.7658, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 77.55.
The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 95.68.