Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.03%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 9.52% or 0.32 points to trade at 3.68 at the close. Meanwhile, Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:SAR) added 8.47% or 0.40 points to end at 5.12 and James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX) was up 7.27% or 1.94 points to 28.64 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 10.63% or 0.440 points to trade at 3.700 at the close. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD) declined 8.01% or 0.96 points to end at 11.03 and Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) was down 7.59% or 2.76 points to 33.60.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 737 to 509 and 339 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.60% to 23.628.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.69% or 12.05 to $1765.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.33% or 0.13 to hit $39.70 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.24% or 0.10 to trade at $42.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.51% to 0.6866, while AUD/JPY rose 0.46% to 73.42.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 97.460.