Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.37%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS), which rose 8.77% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.310 at the close. Meanwhile, Blackmores Ltd (ASX:BKL) added 7.59% or 6.62 points to end at 93.79 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) was up 5.40% or 0.230 points to 4.490 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ioof Holdings Ltd (ASX:IFL), which fell 2.73% or 0.21 points to trade at 7.49 at the close. Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH) declined 2.53% or 0.170 points to end at 6.550 and Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG) was down 2.40% or 0.190 points to 7.720.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 629 to 531 and 349 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.00% to 15.397.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.44% or 6.90 to $1575.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.04% or 0.52 to hit $50.63 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.43 to trade at $54.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.49% to 0.6724, while AUD/JPY rose 0.70% to 73.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 97.672.