Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.36%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.36%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC), which rose 7.43% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.80 at the close. Meanwhile, Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) added 5.95% or 0.06 points to end at 0.98 and Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) was up 4.65% or 0.02 points to 0.45 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 7.14% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.78 at the close. Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) declined 6.38% or 0.15 points to end at 2.20 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was down 4.96% or 0.07 points to 1.34.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 572 to 559 and 345 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.03% to 10.77 a new 1-month low.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.13% or 2.85 to $2,161.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.19% or 0.16 to hit $82.00 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.23% or 0.20 to trade at $86.69 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.58% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 98.03.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.17% at 103.41.