Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, IT and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.59%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR), which rose 6.25% or 0.270 points to trade at 4.590 at the close. OZ Minerals Ltd (ASX:OZL) added 6.04% or 0.235 points to end at 4.125 and Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) was up 5.42% or 0.300 points to 5.830 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM), which lost 6.04% or 0.215 points to trade at 3.345 in late trade. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) declined 4.20% or 0.030 points to end at 0.685 and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) shed 3.58% or 0.100 points to 2.690.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 495 to 466 and 180 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 4.99% to 15.365.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.23% or 2.80 to $1196.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.40% or 0.23 to hit $57.65 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.36% or 0.23 to trade at $63.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7697, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 91.92.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.18% at 98.33.