Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.50%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.50%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which rose 33.78% or 2.27 points to trade at 8.99 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 6.64% or 0.08 points to end at 1.21 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was up 6.29% or 0.10 points to 1.69 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 1.89% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.26 at the close. Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC) declined 1.08% or 0.16 points to end at 14.64 and Elders Ltd (ASX:ELD) was down 0.85% or 0.06 points to 6.98.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 861 to 422 and 385 ended unchanged.

Shares in St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) fell to 5-year lows; losing 1.89% or 0.01 to 0.26. Shares in Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC) fell to 52-week lows; losing 1.08% or 0.16 to 14.64.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.58% to 13.72.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.26% or 5.05 to $1,936.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.67% or 0.49 to hit $73.48 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.62% or 0.48 to trade at $78.17 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.07% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.48% to 93.89.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 101.43.