Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.36%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the IT , Telecoms Services and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.36%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX: SGM ), which rose 4.77% or 0.735 points to trade at 16.155 at the close. Tassal Group Ltd (AX: TGR ) added 3.53% or 0.130 points to end at 3.810 and Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (AX: QBE ) was up 3.01% or 0.360 points to 12.310 in late trade.

Biggest losers included South32 Ltd (AX: S32 ), which lost 3.38% or 0.095 points to trade at 2.715 in late trade. Mantra Group Ltd (AX: MTR ) declined 2.46% or 0.075 points to end at 2.975 and Vocus Group Ltd (AX: VOC ) shed 2.27% or 0.080 points to 3.450.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 619 to 470 and 356 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 6.79% to 14.337.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.06% or 0.77 to $1210.47 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.57% or 0.25 to hit $44.48 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.26 to trade at $46.97 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.08% to 0.7608, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 86.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 95.75.