Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Utilities and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT), which rose 5.68% or 0.100 points to trade at 1.860 at the close. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) added 4.71% or 0.040 points to end at 0.890 and G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) was up 4.11% or 0.095 points to 2.405 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API), which lost 5.68% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.495 in late trade. Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) declined 4.41% or 0.230 points to end at 4.980 and Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) shed 4.21% or 0.470 points to 10.700.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 702 to 504 and 347 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 1.76% to 13.614.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.10% or 1.20 to $1240.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.12% or 0.83 to hit $74.77 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.61 to trade at $77.91 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.26% to 0.7358, while AUD/JPY rose 0.34% to 81.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 94.62.