Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.48%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.48%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ingenia Communities Group (ASX:INA), which rose 15.04% or 0.68 points to trade at 5.20 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) added 6.61% or 0.40 points to end at 6.45 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) was up 6.25% or 0.04 points to 0.60 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 9.25% or 0.26 points to trade at 2.55 at the close. Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) declined 8.77% or 0.14 points to end at 1.41 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 6.20% or 0.17 points to 2.57.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 584 to 459 and 451 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.53% to 11.72.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.20% or 5.25 to $2,683.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.49% or 0.38 to hit $76.92 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.60% or 0.49 to trade at $80.52 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.10% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 97.46.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.32% at 109.46.