Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Utilities, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 5.08% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.93 at the close. Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) added 4.68% or 0.22 points to end at 4.92 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was up 4.13% or 0.05 points to 1.13 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which lost 5.40% or 1.24 points to trade at 21.74 in late trade. Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX:NEC) declined 2.84% or 0.04 points to end at 1.37 and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) shed 2.72% or 0.04 points to 1.52.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 594 to 561 and 476 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 2.98% to 10.82.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.27% or 6.40 to $2,335.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.24% or 0.19 to hit $79.53 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.20% or 0.17 to trade at $84.08 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.26% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.35% to 104.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 105.01.