Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.00%

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 1.00%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mineral Resources Ltd (AX: MIN ), which rose 10.56% or 1.510 points to trade at 15.810 at the close. Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX: EHL ) added 6.91% or 0.150 points to end at 2.320 and Vocus Group Ltd (AX: VOC ) was up 5.35% or 0.170 points to 3.350 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX: API ), which lost 7.52% or 0.120 points to trade at 1.475 in late trade. Perpetual Ltd (AX: PPT ) declined 3.99% or 1.330 points to end at 32.010 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX: SIG ) shed 1.72% or 0.010 points to 0.570.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 584 to 535 and 355 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 4.48% to 16.151.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.08% or 0.95 to $1240.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.14% or 0.07 to hit $51.54 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $60.26 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.08% to 0.7171, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 81.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 96.915.