Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.26%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Utilities , Consumer Staples and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Isentia Group Ltd (AX: ISD ), which rose 6.43% or 0.100 points to trade at 1.655 at the close. Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX: AHG ) added 5.04% or 0.200 points to end at 4.170 and Ardent Leisure Group (AX: AAD ) was up 3.87% or 0.060 points to 1.610 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ), which lost 6.32% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.445 in late trade. Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ) declined 6.19% or 0.200 points to end at 3.030 and Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ) shed 6.00% or 0.180 points to 2.820.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 608 to 473 and 345 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 6.02% to 11.373.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.04% or 0.45 to $1225.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $53.19 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.05 to trade at $55.96 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.49% to 0.7617, while AUD/JPY rose 0.52% to 86.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 101.66.

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