Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Gold, IT and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.20%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 13.41% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.23 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 6.94% or 0.06 points to end at 0.93 and Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) was up 5.99% or 0.16 points to 2.83 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Elders Ltd (ASX:ELD), which fell 24.21% or 2.38 points to trade at 7.45 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) declined 15.04% or 0.29 points to end at 1.61 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) was down 3.65% or 0.20 points to 5.15.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 621 to 549 and 471 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.30% to 11.01.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.43% or 10.10 to $2,355.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.56% or 1.36 to hit $85.55 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 1.60% or 1.46 to trade at $89.71 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.23% to 99.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 104.14.