Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Utilities 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 Cardno Ltd (ASX:CDD), which rose 11.36% or 0.350 points to trade at 3.430 at the close. Syrah Res F (ASX:SYR) added 5.20% or 0.210 points to end at 4.250 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) was up 5.17% or 0.015 points to 0.305 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ioof Holdings Ltd (ASX:IFL), which lost 13.32% or 1.420 points to trade at 9.240 in late trade. Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK) declined 12.30% or 2.030 points to end at 14.470 and Ansell Ltd (ASX:ANN) shed 6.14% or 1.580 points to 24.170.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 565 to 485 and 199 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 0.67% to 16.407.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.43% or 5.20 to $1196.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.31% or 0.18 to hit $60.16 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.50% or 0.32 to trade at $63.34 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.28% to 0.7790, while AUD/JPY rose 0.33% to 95.67.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.27% at 94.05.