Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.68%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.68%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML ), which rose 7.50% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.65 at the close. Meanwhile, Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG ) added 6.44% or 0.62 points to end at 10.24 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP ) was up 5.69% or 0.14 points to 2.70 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH ), which fell 4.30% or 1.41 points to trade at 31.39 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG ) declined 2.84% or 0.02 points to end at 0.69 and National Storage REIT (ASX:NSR ) was down 2.37% or 0.06 points to 2.47.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 647 to 410 and 476 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.72% to 12.00.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.18% or 4.70 to $2,663.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.31% or 0.23 to hit $74.15 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.44% or 0.34 to trade at $77.71 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 100.98.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 102.31.

Source: Investing.com