Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Utilities, IT and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Independence Group NL (AX:IGO), which rose 4.21% or 0.150 points to trade at 3.710 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 3.79% or 0.025 points to end at 0.685 and Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG) was up 2.51% or 0.080 points to 3.270 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Spark Infrastructure Group (AX:SKI), which lost 4.46% or 0.120 points to trade at 2.570 in late trade. Virtus Health Ltd (AX:VRT) declined 3.90% or 0.220 points to end at 5.420 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) shed 3.79% or 0.080 points to 2.030.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 664 to 511 and 351 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 0.37% to 13.520.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.81% or 10.74 to $1341.14 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.49% or 0.23 to hit $47.52 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.07 to trade at $52.27 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.20% to 0.7961, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 87.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 92.49.