Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Australian Real Estate Investment Trust, Consumer Discretionary and Health Care sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC), which rose 22.00% or 0.011 points to trade at 0.061 at the close. Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL) added 8.51% or 0.720 points to end at 9.180 and APN News & Media Ltd (ASX:APN) was up 5.59% or 0.050 points to 0.945 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL), which lost 8.11% or 0.450 points to trade at 5.100 in late trade. Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd (ASX:AGI) declined 7.67% or 0.220 points to end at 2.650 and UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) shed 5.61% or 0.110 points to 1.850.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 341 to 265 and 30 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 0.03% to 15.066.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.13% or 1.60 to $1203.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.12% or 0.06 to hit $50.75 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.52% or 0.32 to trade at $60.39 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7835, while AUD/JPY fell 0.11% to 93.24.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 94.47.