Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.56%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.56%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX), which rose 3.55% or 0.11 points to trade at 3.21 at the close. Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (ASX:CWY) added 3.33% or 0.09 points to end at 2.79 and APA Group (ASX:APA) was up 3.09% or 0.21 points to 7.01 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 9.23% or 3.75 points to trade at 36.86 in late trade. Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) declined 3.58% or 0.27 points to end at 7.28 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) shed 3.49% or 0.03 points to 0.83.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 613 to 474 and 385 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 3.77% to 13.31.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.03% or 0.90 to $2,750.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.77% or 1.23 to hit $70.72 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.64% or 1.20 to trade at $74.30 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.66% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.40% to 100.30.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.53% at 103.65.