Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.86% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU), which rose 11.38% or 0.735 points to trade at 7.195 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 7.75% or 0.105 points to end at 1.460 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) was up 6.75% or 0.255 points to 4.035 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY), which lost 2.88% or 0.110 points to trade at 3.710 in late trade. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) declined 2.85% or 0.033 points to end at 1.107 and Oil Search Ltd (AX:OSH) shed 1.01% or 0.070 points to 6.880.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 751 to 349 and 310 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 3.70% to 17.402.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.34% or 4.60 to $1363.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.59% or 0.27 to hit $45.14 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.21 to trade at $46.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.18% to 0.7558, while AUD/JPY rose 0.75% to 76.69.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.17% at 96.47.