Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.85%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 14.58% or 0.280 points to trade at 2.200 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 10.00% or 0.055 points to end at 0.605 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was up 8.49% or 0.045 points to 0.575 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH), which lost 45.69% or 0.265 points to trade at 0.315 in late trade. Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (AX:BEN) declined 5.96% or 0.510 points to end at 8.050 and Telstra Corporation Ltd. (AX:TLS) shed 4.76% or 0.250 points to 5.000.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 501 to 458 and 257 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 down 3.99% to 21.290.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.97% or 12.00 to $1246.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.07% or 0.36 to hit $34.11 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.29 to trade at $36.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.7160, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 80.67.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 98.17.