Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the IT, Healthcare and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT), which rose 10.34% or 0.165 points to trade at 1.760 at the close. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) added 9.37% or 1.060 points to end at 12.370 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL) was up 7.69% or 0.020 points to 0.280 in late trade.
Biggest losers included James Hardie Industries PLC (AX:JHX), which lost 3.01% or 0.570 points to trade at 18.340 in late trade. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) declined 2.85% or 0.090 points to end at 3.070 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) shed 2.81% or 0.250 points to 8.660.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 625 to 544 and 351 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 4.54% to 18.259.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.04% or 0.50 to $1228.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.07% or 0.05 to hit $67.09 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.27% or 0.21 to trade at $77.16 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.47% to 0.7089, while AUD/JPY rose 0.73% to 79.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.32% at 96.44.