Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.68%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.68%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 7.50% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.65 at the close. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) added 6.44% or 0.62 points to end at 10.24 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was up 5.69% or 0.14 points to 2.70 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Fisher&Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH), which lost 4.30% or 1.41 points to trade at 31.39 in late trade. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) declined 2.84% or 0.02 points to end at 0.69 and National Storage REIT (ASX:NSR) shed 2.37% or 0.06 points to 2.47.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 647 to 410 and 476 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 down 3.72% to 12.00.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.18% or 4.80 to $2,663.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.31% or 0.23 to hit $74.15 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.42% or 0.33 to trade at $77.72 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 100.97.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 102.31.