Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 2.59%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 11.60% or 0.370 points to trade at 3.560 at the close. Meanwhile, Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) added 7.80% or 1.78 points to end at 24.61 and Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH) was up 7.54% or 0.190 points to 2.710 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which fell 2.13% or 0.34 points to trade at 15.66 at the close. ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX:ARB) declined 0.52% or 0.15 points to end at 28.50 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) was down 0.51% or 0.160 points to 31.130.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 893 to 337 and 338 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.41% to 21.556.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.48% or 9.10 to $1898.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 2.00% or 0.74 to hit $37.79 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.76% or 0.69 to trade at $39.96 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.14% to 0.7172, while AUD/JPY rose 0.60% to 75.73.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 93.860.