Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, IT and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which rose 4.18% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.490 at the close. Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) added 3.18% or 0.090 points to end at 2.920 and Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE) was up 2.08% or 0.050 points to 2.450 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which lost 5.12% or 0.860 points to trade at 15.940 in late trade. Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) declined 4.64% or 1.220 points to end at 25.070 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) shed 3.82% or 0.095 points to 2.395.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 690 to 477 and 372 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 1.94% to 13.080.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.12% or 1.40 to $1204.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.39% or 0.27 to hit $68.41 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.53% or 0.41 to trade at $77.64 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.36% to 0.7208, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 80.71.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 94.03.