Australian shares finished marginally higher on Tuesday, as a slew of positive earnings results were offset by a major sell-off in pharmaceutical giant CSL.

The S&P/ASX 200 was just 1.2 points higher, at 8484.1, at the close. The All Ordinaries Index was just 0.05 per cent higher. Seven of the ASX 200’s 11 sectors were higher, led by industrials and technology stocks.

Upbeat earnings results from Macquarie Group to Seven West Media had helped keep the bourse in the green earlier in the session. Macquarie gained 1.6 per cent, closing at $231.54, after the investment bank said it was on track to meet full-year guidance. That’s after its third-quarter performance broadly matched last year’s.

Seven West Media rallied 6.1 per cent to 17.5¢ despite reporting a slump in half-year by two-thirds to $18 million. It did, however, flag that the advertising market was finally turning. That upbeat outlook helped push Nine Entertainment, the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, up more than 14 per cent to $1.47.

Ramsay Health Care lifted 1.4 per cent to $34.73, even as the private hospital giant flagged a £151 million ($305 million) hit to its balance sheet in the six months through December.

However, healthcare stocks weighed on the ASX 200 after index heavyweight CSL tumbled 5 per cent to $256.96. A sell-off in the shares gained momentum on Tuesday afternoon after the biotech said low immunisation rates in the United States hurt first-half sales for its vaccination business.

Gold miners rallied as the price surged to new heights throughout the session. The precious metal is climbing towards $US3,000, with demand growing as uncertainty persists around the impact of the current – and expected – US tariffs on trade partners. Evolution Mining, De Grey Mining and Northern Star Resources all rose more than 4 per cent, closing at $6.22, $2.14 and $4.04 respectively.

Lithium miners tracked a sell-off in lithium stocks in Asia and Hong Kong, on fears of downward price pressure from a major electric vehicle battery maker restarting production at its lithium operation. Liontown Resources slumped 9.1 per cent to 60¢ and Mineral Resources 6.9 per cent to $32.62.

But Patrick Trindade, senior wealth adviser at Sequoia Wealth Management, said the impact of US tariffs on Chinese batteries could also be hurting sentiment towards Australia’s lithium miners.

“Chinese batteries will probably be one of the big losers from the Trump tariffs. People are becoming more and more cautious towards our resources sector,” he said.

Stocks on the move

In corporate news, SGH rose 6.2 per cent to $51.65 after the company formerly known as Seven Group Holdings hiked its dividend 30 per cent, thanks to strong returns from its newly acquired building products business Boral.

Breville slipped 0.4 per cent to $36.89 after paring heavier losses. The company increased its dividend from 16¢ to 18¢ per share and said it expected full-year earnings to gain between 5 per cent and 10 per cent.

Charter Hall Social Infrastructure REIT jumped 8.5 per cent to $2.80 after boosting its full-year distribution guidance to 15.2¢ a unit up from 15¢ a unit.

Region Group, the country’s biggest owner of smaller suburban malls, swung in to the green on Tuesday before reversing gains, closing down 2.3 per cent at $2.13. The company recorded a net loss of $35 million in the six months to December 31, 2023.