Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.28% to hit a new all time high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 12.44% or 0.26 points to trade at 2.35 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 11.63% or 0.18 points to end at 1.68 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC) was up 6.15% or 0.08 points to 1.38 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN), which lost 6.94% or 0.24 points to trade at 3.22 in late trade. Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) declined 5.61% or 0.03 points to end at 0.51 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) shed 3.83% or 0.10 points to 2.51.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 574 to 560 and 444 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 0.79% to 11.00.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.51% or 41.20 to $2,696.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.69% or 0.49 to hit $70.75 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.68% or 0.51 to trade at $74.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.28% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 100.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.53% at 106.94.