Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SIP), which rose 7.87% or 0.070 points to trade at 0.960 at the close. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) added 6.07% or 0.270 points to end at 4.720 and Abacus Property Group (ASX:ABP) was up 5.47% or 0.170 points to 3.280 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG), which lost 9.06% or 0.290 points to trade at 2.910 in late trade. Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) declined 7.58% or 0.270 points to end at 3.290 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) shed 5.58% or 0.120 points to 2.030.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 488 to 488 and 165 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 1.04% to 15.110.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.19% or 2.10 to $1087.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.94% or 0.42 to hit $45.59 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.28 to trade at $49.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 1.25% to 0.7376, while AUD/JPY rose 1.21% to 91.45.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 97.54.