Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.02%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.02% to hit a new 5-year high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX: BPT ), which rose 6.42% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.160 at the close. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX: PTM ) added 5.93% or 0.440 points to end at 7.860 and Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ) was up 5.25% or 0.160 points to 3.210 in late trade.

Biggest losers included A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX: A2M ), which lost 4.90% or 0.350 points to trade at 6.800 in late trade. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX: HVN ) declined 2.39% or 0.090 points to end at 3.680 and Ardent Leisure Group (AX: AAD ) shed 1.58% or 0.030 points to 1.870.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 752 to 445 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 up 5.02% to 11.688.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.15% or 1.89 to $1279.71 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $57.33 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $64.23 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7680, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 87.53.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 94.68.