Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.82%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.82% to hit a new 6-months high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN), which rose 13.40% or 0.54 points to trade at 4.57 at the close. Meanwhile, Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) added 12.16% or 0.09 points to end at 0.83 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was up 9.02% or 0.06 points to 0.67 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), which fell 3.76% or 0.50 points to trade at 12.81 at the close. Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) declined 2.21% or 0.17 points to end at 7.51 and Janus Henderson Group PLC DRC (ASX:JHG) was down 2.12% or 0.83 points to 38.27.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 763 to 536 and 405 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.28% to 12.20.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.08% or 1.45 to $1,920.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.91% or 0.73 to hit $79.38 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.72% or 0.61 to trade at $84.67 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.10% to 0.70, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 89.36.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 101.87.