Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Materials, Consumer Discretionary and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.49% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were South32 Ltd (AX:S32), which rose 6.08% or 0.113 points to trade at 1.962 at the close. ANZ Banking Group (AX:ANZ) added 4.97% or 1.150 points to end at 24.270 and Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG) was up 4.26% or 0.170 points to 4.160 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN), which lost 3.43% or 0.105 points to trade at 2.955 in late trade. Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) declined 3.13% or 0.220 points to end at 6.820 and Covermore Fpo (AX:CVO) shed 2.69% or 0.035 points to 1.265.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 621 to 450 and 350 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 3.88% to 16.726.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.02% or 0.25 to $1356.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $44.81 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.10 to trade at $46.35 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.70% to 0.7587, while AUD/JPY rose 0.96% to 78.19.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.21% at 96.38.