Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Gold, Utilities and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS), which rose 9.43% or 0.075 points to trade at 0.870 at the close. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 7.17% or 0.230 points to end at 3.440 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 6.92% or 0.440 points to 6.800 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ), which lost 3.01% or 0.020 points to trade at 0.645 in late trade. Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) declined 2.73% or 0.015 points to end at 0.535 and Iron Mountain Inc (AX:INM) shed 2.45% or 1.06 points to 42.20.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 771 to 452 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 12.70% to 18.771.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.20% or 2.60 to $1329.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.51% or 0.30 to hit $59.59 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.35 to trade at $62.94 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7869, while AUD/JPY fell 0.25% to 85.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 89.88.