Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.96%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.96% to hit a new 6-months high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which rose 12.50% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.18 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 10.86% or 0.29 points to end at 2.96 and Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:RMS) was up 10.53% or 0.09 points to 0.94 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT), which fell 3.85% or 0.38 points to trade at 9.49 at the close. Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) declined 3.69% or 0.09 points to end at 2.35 and Computershare Ltd. (ASX:CPU) was down 3.09% or 0.86 points to 26.98.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 795 to 499 and 366 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.13% to 12.84.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.83% or 32.15 to $1,792.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.35% or 0.28 to hit $80.27 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.36% or 0.31 to trade at $86.66 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.50% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.76% to 92.96.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.35% at 105.52.