Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.87%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU), which rose 3.70% or 0.250 points to trade at 7.010 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) added 3.05% or 0.100 points to end at 3.380 and Invocare Ltd (AX:IVC) was up 2.36% or 0.350 points to 15.180 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Navitas Ltd (AX:NVT), which lost 9.35% or 0.490 points to trade at 4.750 in late trade. Credit Corp Group Ltd (AX:CCP) declined 8.07% or 1.910 points to end at 21.770 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) shed 4.85% or 0.050 points to 0.980.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 860 to 403 and 349 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 9.57% to 12.817 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.44% or 5.90 to $1334.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.07% or 0.70 to hit $64.86 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.75% or 0.52 to trade at $68.68 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.27% to 0.8071, while AUD/JPY fell 0.46% to 87.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 89.28.