Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.50%

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

At the close in Sydney, the added 0.50% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:), which rose 6.67% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.80 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:) added 6.48% or 0.02 points to end at 0.29 and Xero Ltd (ASX:) was up 4.07% or 4.25 points to 108.62 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:), which fell 10.00% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.68 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) declined 5.88% or 0.03 points to end at 0.48 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:) was down 5.56% or 0.08 points to 1.36.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 637 to 528 and 349 ended unchanged.

Shares in Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:) fell to 5-year lows; losing 5.56% or 0.08 to 1.36.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.07% to 9.79.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.34% or 6.70 to $2,000.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.73% or 0.52 to hit $71.84 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.50 to trade at $76.53 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.46% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 95.97.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 103.56.