Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.24% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, the gained 0.24%.

The best performers of the session on the were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:), which rose 12.86% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.79 at the close. Meanwhile, Cromwell Property Group (ASX:) added 5.26% or 0.02 points to end at 0.40 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:) was up 3.91% or 0.29 points to 7.71 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which fell 34.43% or 0.11 points to trade at 0.20 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:) declined 4.37% or 0.10 points to end at 2.19 and Charter Hall Retail Reit (ASX:) was down 2.77% or 0.09 points to 3.16.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 496 to 406 and 355 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.52% to 11.23.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.17% or 4.35 to $2,632.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.42% or 0.29 to hit $69.53 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.44% or 0.32 to trade at $72.64 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY fell 0.33% to 97.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 107.90.