Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT, Telecoms Services and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were James Hardie Industries PLC (AX:JHX), which rose 4.01% or 0.900 points to trade at 23.350 at the close. Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) added 2.10% or 2.62 points to end at 127.62 and Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) was up 2.22% or 0.030 points to 1.380 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Altium Ltd (AX:ALU), which lost 7.48% or 1.710 points to trade at 21.160 in late trade. Technology One Ltd (AX:TNE) declined 6.06% or 0.300 points to end at 4.650 and G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) shed 4.32% or 0.115 points to 2.545.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 757 to 489 and 364 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 13.17% to 13.465 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.02% or 0.30 to $1290.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.36% or 0.26 to hit $72.61 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.32% or 0.25 to trade at $79.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.12% to 0.7590, while AUD/JPY rose 0.01% to 84.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 93.44.