Australia stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Healthcare, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.33%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF), which rose 9.43% or 0.61 points to trade at 7.08 at the close. Meanwhile, James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX) added 7.06% or 2.75 points to end at 41.70 and Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) was up 3.87% or 8.53 points to 228.73 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Abacus Property Group (ASX:ABG), which fell 5.08% or 0.06 points to trade at 1.12 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) declined 4.69% or 0.03 points to end at 0.61 and Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC) was down 3.47% or 0.03 points to 0.69.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 589 to 579 and 521 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.04% to 11.36.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.51% or 16.80 to $3,304.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.47% or 0.31 to hit $65.21 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.17 to trade at $66.63 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.24% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 94.26.