Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.13%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.13%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Reece Ltd (ASX:REH), which rose 19.22% or 4.63 points to trade at 28.72 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 13.10% or 0.06 points to end at 0.47 and G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) was up 12.05% or 0.14 points to 1.26 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which fell 13.90% or 0.13 points to trade at 0.81 at the close. Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) declined 7.94% or 0.11 points to end at 1.27 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) was down 4.91% or 0.71 points to 13.75.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 675 to 433 and 350 ended unchanged.

Shares in Reece Ltd (ASX:REH) rose to 5-year highs; gaining 19.22% or 4.63 to 28.72.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.90% to 11.14.

Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.16% or 3.25 to $2,042.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.05% or 0.04 to hit $77.62 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $81.71 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.06% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 98.47.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 103.69.