Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.74% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were NIB Holdings (AX:NHF), which rose 15.79% or 0.930 points to trade at 6.820 at the close. Medibank Private Ltd (AX:MPL) added 11.46% or 0.330 points to end at 3.210 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL) was up 9.14% or 0.170 points to 2.030 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Webjet Ltd (AX:WEB), which lost 7.74% or 1.300 points to trade at 15.500 in late trade. Nearmap Ltd (AX:NEA) declined 5.74% or 0.220 points to end at 3.610 and Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) shed 4.63% or 1.510 points to 31.100.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 635 to 558 and 377 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 1.20% to 13.853.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.02% or 0.25 to $1275.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 1.29% or 0.81 to hit $63.73 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.37% or 0.99 to trade at $73.20 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.82% to 0.6925, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 76.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 97.868.