Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.63%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.63%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aconex Ltd (AX: ACX ), which rose 13.29% or 0.690 points to trade at 5.880 at the close. IPH Ltd (AX: IPH ) added 6.67% or 0.360 points to end at 5.760 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX: FMG ) was up 6.26% or 0.320 points to 5.430 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Bega Cheese Ltd (AX: BGA ), which lost 18.80% or 1.220 points to trade at 5.270 in late trade. ALS Ltd (AX: ALQ ) declined 4.50% or 0.290 points to end at 6.160 and Asaleo Care (AX: AHY ) shed 4.08% or 0.060 points to 1.410.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 558 to 464 and 326 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 3.41% to 13.077.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.21% or 2.65 to $1266.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $50.52 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.08 to trade at $51.38 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.24% to 0.7631, while AUD/JPY rose 0.48% to 79.69.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.08% at 98.72.