Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI), which rose 8.33% or 0.015 points to trade at 0.195 at the close. Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) added 5.28% or 0.190 points to end at 3.790 and Regis Healthcare Ltd (ASX:REG) was up 5.02% or 0.280 points to 5.860 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Worleyparsons Ltd (ASX:WOR), which lost 9.61% or 1.100 points to trade at 10.350 in late trade. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) declined 6.90% or 0.050 points to end at 0.675 and STW Communications Group Ltd (ASX:SGN) shed 3.76% or 0.025 points to 0.640.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 588 to 412 and 184 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 1.75% to 17.284.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.72% or 8.40 to $1182.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.06% or 0.04 to hit $59.12 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.00% or 0.01 to trade at $66.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.20% to 0.7828, while AUD/JPY fell 0.37% to 93.98.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 95.44.