Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Discretionary and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.95% to hit a new 6-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX), which rose 6.56% or 0.060 points to trade at 0.975 at the close. Appen Ltd (AX:APX) added 5.31% or 1.260 points to end at 25.000 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) was up 4.55% or 0.025 points to 0.575 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which lost 3.98% or 0.065 points to trade at 1.570 in late trade. Hub24 Ltd (AX:HUB) declined 3.16% or 0.460 points to end at 14.100 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) shed 2.67% or 0.090 points to 3.280.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 659 to 483 and 401 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 up 5.64% to 11.530.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.23% or 2.95 to $1274.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.87% or 0.57 to hit $66.12 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.73% or 0.54 to trade at $74.58 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7118, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 79.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 97.055.