Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Financials and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.37%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX:IPL), which rose 9.79% or 0.280 points to trade at 3.140 at the close. M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) added 4.81% or 0.065 points to end at 1.415 and Macquarie Group Ltd (AX:MQG) was up 4.32% or 2.895 points to 69.895 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX:SGM), which lost 10.11% or 0.950 points to trade at 8.450 in late trade. Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) declined 7.73% or 0.490 points to end at 5.850 and Greencross Ltd (AX:GXL) shed 7.30% or 0.555 points to 7.045.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 595 to 454 and 346 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.16% to 18.306.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.13% or 1.65 to $1268.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.07% or 0.03 to hit $43.41 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.39% or 0.17 to trade at $43.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.16% to 0.7329, while AUD/JPY rose 0.59% to 79.72.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 94.17.