Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.51%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.51%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which rose 6.03% or 0.11 points to trade at 1.85 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 5.45% or 0.02 points to end at 0.29 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) was up 3.83% or 0.36 points to 9.76 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL), which fell 7.30% or 1.61 points to trade at 20.45 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 3.57% or 0.01 points to end at 0.27 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was down 3.38% or 0.03 points to 0.71.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 668 to 514 and 360 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.42% to 11.70.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.44% or 8.95 to $2,031.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $74.75 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $80.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.50% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.40% to 97.69.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 102.97.