Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Utilities, Gold and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.91%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which rose 10.60% or 0.230 points to trade at 2.400 at the close. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) added 6.90% or 0.040 points to end at 0.620 and Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) was up 6.48% or 0.510 points to 8.380 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ozforex Grp (ASX:OFX), which lost 10.53% or 0.280 points to trade at 2.380 in late trade. Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) declined 3.88% or 0.200 points to end at 4.950 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG) shed 2.93% or 0.130 points to 4.310.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 560 to 447 and 204 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 1.64% to 15.106.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.67% or 8.10 to $1196.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.44% or 0.26 to hit $59.46 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.53% or 0.34 to trade at $65.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.36% to 0.7796, while AUD/JPY rose 0.49% to 95.57.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.75% at 97.18.