Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT), which rose 6.93% or 1.690 points to trade at 26.090 at the close. Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (ASX:MYX) added 4.85% or 0.025 points to end at 0.540 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) was up 4.05% or 0.610 points to 15.660 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA), which lost 40.80% or 1.420 points to trade at 2.060 in late trade. Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) declined 5.58% or 0.670 points to end at 11.340 and Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX:ECX) shed 5.12% or 0.065 points to 1.205.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 663 to 491 and 345 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 3.72% to 11.895 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.26% or 3.55 to $1392.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.36% or 0.21 to hit $59.30 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.43% or 0.28 to trade at $65.34 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.27% to 0.6984, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 75.71.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 96.343.