Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.32% to hit a new 3-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT), which rose 12.06% or 4.25 points to trade at 39.50 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 11.66% or 0.470 points to end at 4.500 and Orora Fpo (ASX:ORA) was up 7.92% or 0.16 points to 2.18 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM), which lost 11.68% or 0.115 points to trade at 0.870 in late trade. STW Communications Group Ltd (ASX:SGN) declined 8.67% or 0.065 points to end at 0.685 and Village Roadshow Ltd (ASX:VRL) shed 7.99% or 0.510 points to 5.870.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 331 to 268 and 39 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 7.42% to 13.948 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.01% or 0.10 to $1200.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.54% or 0.27 to hit $49.19 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.06 to trade at $58.84 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.42% to 0.7770, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 92.56.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 94.72.