Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the IT, Consumer Staples and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Ltd (AX:GMA), which rose 7.29% or 0.180 points to trade at 2.650 at the close. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) added 6.02% or 0.930 points to end at 16.380 and Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) was up 4.52% or 0.430 points to 9.950 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL), which lost 20.38% or 0.485 points to trade at 1.895 in late trade. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) declined 8.20% or 0.050 points to end at 0.560 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) shed 6.67% or 0.200 points to 2.800.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 661 to 610 and 417 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 up 0.88% to 11.026.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.11% or 1.40 to $1301.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.18% or 0.12 to hit $66.22 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.07 to trade at $76.53 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7614, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 83.98.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 93.71.