Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Healthcare and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 12.86% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.79 at the close. Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) added 5.26% or 0.02 points to end at 0.40 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) was up 3.91% or 0.29 points to 7.71 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which lost 34.43% or 0.11 points to trade at 0.20 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 4.37% or 0.10 points to end at 2.19 and Charter Hall Retail Reit (ASX:CQR) shed 2.77% or 0.09 points to 3.16.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 496 to 406 and 355 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 4.52% to 11.23.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.16% or 4.16 to $2,632.36 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.38% or 0.26 to hit $69.50 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.29 to trade at $72.61 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 97.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 107.91.