Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.12%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.12%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 3.72% or 0.10 points to trade at 2.79 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) added 3.71% or 0.25 points to end at 6.99 and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX:PTM) was up 3.36% or 0.04 points to 1.23 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which fell 5.52% or 1.01 points to trade at 17.28 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 4.21% or 0.02 points to end at 0.46 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was down 4.86% or 0.16 points to 3.13.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 614 to 503 and 466 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.58% to 12.42.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.23% or 6.35 to $2,748.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 4.67% or 3.35 to hit $68.43 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 4.46% or 3.37 to trade at $72.26 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 101.25.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 104.42.