Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Financials, Utilities and Consumer Staples sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.76%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 10.68% or 0.470 points to trade at 4.870 at the close. Meanwhile, Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:CCP) added 6.68% or 1.19 points to end at 19.01 and News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS) was up 6.45% or 1.26 points to 20.81 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were oOh!Media Ltd (ASX:OML), which fell 4.29% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.780 at the close. Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX:CLW) declined 3.82% or 0.19 points to end at 4.78 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was down 2.56% or 0.035 points to 1.330.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 825 to 481 and 298 ended unchanged.
Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) rose to 5-year highs; rising 10.68% or 0.470 to 4.870.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.53% to 19.461.
Gold Futures for October delivery was up 0.73% or 14.75 to $2032.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 1.09% or 0.45 to hit $41.67 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.74% or 0.33 to trade at $44.73 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.7160, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 75.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 93.412.