Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.79% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the rose 0.79%.

The best performers of the session on the were Lend Lease Group (ASX:), which rose 8.15% or 0.48 points to trade at 6.37 at the close. Meanwhile, G8 Education Ltd (ASX:) added 4.24% or 0.05 points to end at 1.23 and Ingenia Communities Group (ASX:) was up 4.03% or 0.19 points to 4.91 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which fell 16.07% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.24 at the close. Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:) declined 6.28% or 0.06 points to end at 0.93 and Cromwell Property Group (ASX:) was down 3.19% or 0.02 points to 0.46.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 606 to 580 and 464 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.56% to 11.25.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.44% or 33.55 to $2,368.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.40% or 0.31 to hit $78.03 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.33 to trade at $82.17 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.13% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 104.06.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 104.64.