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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.34%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN ), which rose 8.22% or 1.37 points to trade at 18.04 at the close. Meanwhile, Polynovo Ltd (ASX: PNV ) added 6.25% or 0.07 points to end at 1.11 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC ) was up 4.80% or 0.23 points to 5.02 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX: APX ), which fell 3.83% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.88 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M ) declined 3.01% or 0.25 points to end at 8.06 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX: OBL ) was down 2.70% or 0.04 points to 1.26.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 722 to 384 and 414 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 14.97% to 16.41.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.13% or 4.34 to $3,248.94 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.20% or 0.12 to hit $61.62 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.09 to trade at $64.85 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.49% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 89.95.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.80% at 99.09.