Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.49%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.49% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were South32 Ltd (AX: S32 ), which rose 6.08% or 0.113 points to trade at 1.962 at the close. ANZ Banking Group (AX: ANZ ) added 4.97% or 1.150 points to end at 24.270 and Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX: AHG ) was up 4.26% or 0.170 points to 4.160 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ), which lost 3.43% or 0.105 points to trade at 2.955 in late trade. Altium Ltd (AX: ALU ) declined 3.13% or 0.220 points to end at 6.820 and Covermore Fpo (AX: CVO ) shed 2.69% or 0.035 points to 1.265.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 621 to 450 and 350 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 3.88% to 16.726.

In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.02% or 0.25 to $1356.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $44.81 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.10 to trade at $46.35 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.70% to 0.7587, while AUD/JPY rose 0.96% to 78.19.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.21% at 96.38.