Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.17%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.17%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which rose 4.35% or 0.090 points to trade at 2.160 at the close. Meanwhile, Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) added 4.29% or 0.09 points to end at 2.19 and Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) was up 4.05% or 0.49 points to 12.58 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN), which fell 5.25% or 0.26 points to trade at 4.69 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 4.03% or 0.080 points to end at 1.905 and Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) was down 3.32% or 0.90 points to 26.20.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 737 to 569 and 414 ended unchanged.

Shares in Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) rose to 52-week highs; rising 4.35% or 0.090 to 2.160.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.63% to 11.404.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.31% or 5.75 to $1823.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $71.57 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.11% or 0.08 to trade at $73.39 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7427, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 81.82.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 92.707.