Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.58%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining , Utilities and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.58%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Blackmores Ltd (AX: BKL ), which rose 10.29% or 14.94 points to trade at 160.19 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX: BAL ) added 8.44% or 0.870 points to end at 11.180 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ) was up 5.26% or 0.210 points to 4.200 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ), which lost 38.60% or 2.590 points to trade at 4.120 in late trade. Caltex Australia Ltd (AX: CTX ) declined 7.90% or 2.630 points to end at 30.670 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ) shed 5.73% or 1.210 points to 19.920.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 663 to 554 and 363 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 5.58% to 11.244.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to $1216.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.09% or 0.06 to hit $68.81 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at $76.47 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.31% to 0.7327, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 81.50.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 94.78.