The S&P/ASX 200 wavered between gains and declines on Monday, before finishing 0.2 per cent higher. The miners dragged, but banking stocks were strong.

The ASX200 struggled for direction on Monday, with gains for the major banks offset by a materials sector that followed iron ore prices lower.
The market wavered between narrow losses and gains throughout the session before closing 15.6 points, or 0.2 per cent, higher at 7045.9.
There were gains for the big four banks, CSL, gold miners, and food retailers, but this was countered by a 1.8 per cent loss for BHP, a 2.2 per cent fall in Rio Tinto, and a 4.2 per cent fall in Fortescue Metals.
The ASX 200 gained 0.2 per cent on Monday, a third straight gain. Credit:Peter Braig
Chief investment officer at Burman Invest, Julia Lee, said that outside of the mining sector the ASX did well on given weak Wall Street leads.
She noted some defensive sectors like consumer staples and utilities were lower, but said this could occur when investors wanted to sell stable stocks to add more risk to their portfolios. The one thing really holding our market back at the moment is the miners, Ms Lee said.
Iron ore continues to fall in Asian trade. China has said that it will be quite strict in enforcing some of its commodity targets. We know they are trying to diversify their supplies away from Australia and that has had an impact on some of the speculative money.
Iron ore has been trading at unexpected record-high levels in recent weeks, hitting $US223 per tonne last week, but has dropped for the past three sessions to $US204.50 per tonne.
I think the banks are in the upgrade cycle at the moment. The risk is that you do see some regulatory controls coming into a pretty hot housing market, Ms Lee said.
Commonwealth Bank gained 0.7 per cent to close at a new record $98.76, with the $100 barrier beckoning. Westpac gained 1.3 per cent to $25.98, NAB was up 0.7 per cent, and ANZ Bank gained 0.6 per cent.
CSL gained 1.8 per cent to a five-month closing high of $289.27. Wesfarmers gained 0.9 per cent to $54.73, and Dominos Pizza gained 4.6 per cent to a three-month high of $108.70 after an analyst upgrade based on expectations the fast food company could become popular in Italy and other markets.
Gold miners were also stronger with Newcrest up 2.7 per cent to $28.52 after the safe-haven commodity traded at five-month highs of $US1883.51 per ounce.
Global general manager at ABC Bullion, Nick Frappell said he expected gold prices to increase into the 1900s as reflation optimism was battered by weaker than expected jobs and retail growth in the US.