Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.27%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.27% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 17.86% or 0.40 points to trade at 2.64 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 7.84% or 0.02 points to end at 0.28 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was up 4.17% or 0.18 points to 4.50 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH), which lost 5.56% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.43 in late trade. Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) declined 5.04% or 0.13 points to end at 2.45 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) shed 4.41% or 0.03 points to 0.65.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 572 to 545 and 430 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.68% to 12.49.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.18% or 4.75 to $2,615.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.40% or 0.27 to hit $68.02 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.31% or 0.22 to trade at $71.83 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.32% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 94.23.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 100.51.