Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.71%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT), which rose 5.72% or 1.810 points to trade at 33.480 at the close. Meanwhile, Downer Edi Ltd (AX:DOW) added 5.05% or 0.240 points to end at 4.990 and ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) was up 5.05% or 0.260 points to 5.410 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which fell 6.30% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.710 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 6.29% or 0.330 points to end at 4.920 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) was down 6.21% or 0.185 points to 2.795.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 607 to 483 and 366 ended unchanged.
Shares in Downer Edi Ltd (AX:DOW) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 5.05% or 0.240 to 4.990.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.05% to 13.876 a new 52-week low.
Gold for December delivery was down 0.17% or 2.25 to $1342.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.41% or 0.17 to hit $41.97 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.15 to trade at $44.42 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7612, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 77.71.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 96.17.