Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Utilities and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL), which rose 10.29% or 14.94 points to trade at 160.19 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 8.44% or 0.870 points to end at 11.180 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) was up 5.26% or 0.210 points to 4.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA), which lost 38.60% or 2.590 points to trade at 4.120 in late trade. Caltex Australia Ltd (AX:CTX) declined 7.90% or 2.630 points to end at 30.670 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) shed 5.73% or 1.210 points to 19.920.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 663 to 554 and 363 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 5.58% to 11.244.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to $1216.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.09% or 0.06 to hit $68.81 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at $76.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.31% to 0.7327, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 81.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 94.78.