Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Utilities, Australian Real Estate Investment Trust and Gold sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.51%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seven West Media Ltd (ASX:SWM), which rose 9.12% or 0.135 points to trade at 1.615 at the close. Meanwhile, Cabcharge Australia Ltd (ASX:CAB) added 7.44% or 0.380 points to end at 5.490 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) was up 5.34% or 0.420 points to 8.280 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR), which fell 10.78% or 0.200 points to trade at 1.655 at the close. Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) declined 7.19% or 0.230 points to end at 2.970 and Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) was down 7.01% or 0.110 points to 1.460.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 316 to 297 and 23 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.85% to 13.996.
Gold for April delivery was up 0.72% or 8.70 to $1221.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.77% or 0.39 to hit $49.38 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $62.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.42% to 0.7776, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 93.16.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 95.40.