Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Utilities, Australian Real Estate Investment Trust and Gold sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seven West Media Ltd (ASX:SWM), which rose 9.12% or 0.135 points to trade at 1.615 at the close. Cabcharge Australia Ltd (ASX:CAB) added 7.44% or 0.380 points to end at 5.490 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) was up 5.34% or 0.420 points to 8.280 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR), which lost 10.78% or 0.200 points to trade at 1.655 in late trade. Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) declined 7.19% or 0.230 points to end at 2.970 and Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) shed 7.01% or 0.110 points to 1.460.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 316 to 297 and 23 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 2.85% to 13.996.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.72% or 8.70 to $1221.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.77% or 0.39 to hit $49.38 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $62.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.42% to 0.7776, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 93.16.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 95.40.