Australia stocks higher at close of trade

Australia stocks higher at close of trade

Australia stocks were higher after the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Financials, Metals & Mining and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.92%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Rio Tinto Ltd., which rose 4.98% or 2.155 points to trade at 45.415 at the close. Meanwhile, Alumina Ltd added 4.69% or 0.058 points to end at 1.282 and Mineral Resources Ltd was up 4.61% or 0.290 points to 6.580 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which fell 10.55% or 1.050 points to trade at 8.900 at the close. Blackmores Ltd. declined 6.74% or 11.930 points to end at 165.030 and St Barbara Ltd ( was down 4.88% or 0.120 points to 2.340.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 503 to 464 and 345 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.86% to 18.124.

Gold for June delivery was down 0.14% or 1.80 to $1256.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.55% or 0.22 to hit $40.14 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.51% or 0.22 to trade at $42.61 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.40% to 0.7625, while AUD/JPY rose 0.73% to 82.60.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 94.00.