Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.31%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.31%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (AX: ASB ), which rose 12.50% or 0.165 points to trade at 1.485 at the close. Ramsay Health Care Ltd (AX: RHC ) added 7.98% or 6.030 points to end at 81.590 and Select Harvests Ltd (AX: SHV ) was up 7.09% or 0.460 points to 6.950 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Gateway Lifestyle Group (AX: GTY ), which lost 14.18% or 0.370 points to trade at 2.240 in late trade. Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ) declined 13.66% or 0.560 points to end at 3.540 and Mesoblast Ltd (AX: MSB ) shed 7.26% or 0.110 points to 1.405.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 592 to 470 and 330 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 1.04% to 13.006.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.09% or 1.20 to $1325.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.40% or 0.19 to hit $47.17 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.11 to trade at $49.56 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.7572, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 77.34.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.20% at 95.72.