Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.81%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.81% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 9.76% or 0.10 points to trade at 1.13 at the close. Meanwhile, Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) added 8.61% or 0.13 points to end at 1.64 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) was up 8.25% or 0.08 points to 1.05 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which fell 25.33% or 0.38 points to trade at 1.14 at the close. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) declined 10.92% or 0.39 points to end at 3.18 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was down 3.17% or 0.02 points to 0.61.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 865 to 541 and 343 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.35% to 15.30.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.71% or 12.50 to $1,762.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 1.72% or 1.66 to hit $98.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 1.54% or 1.57 to trade at $103.40 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.46% to 0.70, while AUD/JPY fell 0.53% to 93.25.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.57% at 105.64.