Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.42%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Healthcare , Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.42%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ), which rose 9.04% or 0.075 points to trade at 0.905 at the close. Cochlear Ltd (AX: COH ) added 7.86% or 13.17 points to end at 180.76 and Nextdc Ltd (AX: NXT ) was up 5.06% or 0.300 points to 6.230 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Charter Hall Group (AX: CHC ), which lost 2.57% or 0.260 points to trade at 9.870 in late trade. Caltex Australia Ltd (AX: CTX ) declined 2.52% or 0.690 points to end at 26.660 and Bravura Solutions Ltd (AX: BVS ) shed 2.08% or 0.120 points to 5.650.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 574 to 537 and 414 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 3.15% to 10.440 a new 6-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.15% or 1.95 to $1289.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.21% or 0.13 to hit $63.27 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.38% or 0.27 to trade at $70.91 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.33% to 0.7149, while AUD/JPY fell 0.43% to 80.02.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 96.542.