Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.49%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.49%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 7.90% or 0.76 points to trade at 10.38 at the close. Meanwhile, Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:PDL) added 7.28% or 0.35 points to end at 5.16 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 6.38% or 0.31 points to 5.17 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP), which fell 3.06% or 1.420 points to trade at 44.930 at the close. Brambles Ltd (ASX:BXB) declined 2.48% or 0.240 points to end at 9.430 and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) was down 2.38% or 2.660 points to 108.900.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 976 to 482 and 347 ended unchanged.

Shares in Brambles Ltd (ASX:BXB) fell to 52-week lows; losing 2.48% or 0.240 to 9.430.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.05% to 17.385.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.45% or 8.00 to $1803.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.05% or 0.04 to hit $88.11 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.07 to trade at $89.19 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7074, while AUD/JPY rose 0.06% to 81.36.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 96.495.