Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.12%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.12%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 3.72% or 0.10 points to trade at 2.79 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) added 3.71% or 0.25 points to end at 6.99 and Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) was up 3.55% or 1.34 points to 39.07 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which lost 5.52% or 1.01 points to trade at 17.28 in late trade. Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) declined 4.86% or 0.16 points to end at 3.13 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) shed 4.21% or 0.02 points to 0.46.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 614 to 503 and 466 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 0.58% to 12.42.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.21% or 5.85 to $2,748.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 4.69% or 3.37 to hit $68.41 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 4.48% or 3.39 to trade at $72.24 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 101.25.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 104.42.