Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Utilities, Healthcare and Gold sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.05%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL), which rose 3.93% or 7.000 points to trade at 185.000 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 3.27% or 0.065 points to end at 2.050 and Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) was up 3.25% or 0.080 points to 2.540 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which fell 8.08% or 0.053 points to trade at 0.598 at the close. Origin Energy Ltd (AX:ORG) declined 5.92% or 0.290 points to end at 4.610 and Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) was down 5.00% or 0.200 points to 3.800.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 518 to 412 and 304 ended unchanged.
Shares in Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) fell to 52-week lows; losing 5.00% or 0.200 to 3.800.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.87% to 17.285.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.27% or 3.30 to $1220.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.11% or 0.41 to hit $36.38 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.96% or 0.37 to trade at $38.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.55% to 0.7639, while AUD/JPY fell 0.70% to 85.10.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 94.62.