Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.41%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the IT , Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.41%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX: SYR ), which rose 8.91% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.100 at the close. Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ) added 6.04% or 0.045 points to end at 0.790 and Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ) was up 4.75% or 0.160 points to 3.530 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Charter Hall Retail Reit (AX: CQR ), which lost 3.01% or 0.140 points to trade at 4.510 in late trade. Adelaide Brighton Ltd (AX: ABC ) declined 2.86% or 0.130 points to end at 4.410 and Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX: IPL ) shed 2.85% or 0.090 points to 3.070.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 642 to 498 and 344 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 1.61% to 11.332.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.14% or 1.85 to $1292.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.36% or 0.22 to hit $61.81 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.29% or 0.20 to trade at $69.21 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.41% to 0.7081, while AUD/JPY fell 0.40% to 78.85.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 96.877.