CANBERRA: Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Gold, A-REITs and Telecoms Services sectors led shares higher. At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.06%. The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK), which rose 4.09% or 0.130 points to trade at 3.310 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 3.34% or 0.100 points to end at 3.090 and Henderson Group PLC (AX:HGG) was up 2.89% or 0.110 points to 3.920 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR), which fell 4.72% or 0.520 points to trade at 10.490 at the close. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) declined 3.98% or 0.070 points to end at 1.690 and Healthscope (AX:HSO) was down 3.96% or 0.090 points to 2.180. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 633 to 480 and 354 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 10.12% to 12.336. Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.14% or 1.75 to $1249.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.10% or 0.05 to hit $50.55 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.22% or 0.12 to trade at $53.41 a barrel. AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7602, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 84.67. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 100.27.
