Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, Healthcare and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.88%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA), which rose 4.93% or 0.230 points to trade at 4.900 at the close. Computershare Ltd. (AX:CPU) added 4.87% or 0.740 points to end at 15.930 and Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX:IPL) was up 4.81% or 0.180 points to 3.920 in late trade.
Biggest losers included HT&E Ltd (AX:HT1), which lost 4.29% or 0.075 points to trade at 1.675 in late trade. Woodside Petroleum Ltd (AX:WPL) declined 3.43% or 1.105 points to end at 31.135 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) shed 3.23% or 0.025 points to 0.750.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 772 to 512 and 310 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 5.48% to 12.988.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.16% or 2.05 to $1276.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.25% or 0.14 to hit $56.62 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.19 to trade at $62.97 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.14% to 0.7634, while AUD/JPY rose 0.16% to 86.76.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 94.38.