Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.34%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.34%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which rose 7.22% or 0.50 points to trade at 7.43 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 5.00% or 0.04 points to end at 0.74 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.00% or 0.04 points to 0.91 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which fell 6.64% or 0.60 points to trade at 8.44 at the close. Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) declined 4.85% or 0.11 points to end at 2.16 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) was down 4.11% or 0.21 points to 4.90.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 681 to 608 and 399 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.11% to 12.05 a new 6-months low.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.27% or 5.20 to $1,924.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.48% or 0.39 to hit $81.40 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.42% or 0.37 to trade at $87.84 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.71, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 92.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 101.72.