Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, IT and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which rose 3.91% or 0.160 points to trade at 4.250 at the close. Elders Ltd (AX:ELD) added 3.07% or 0.210 points to end at 7.050 and Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN) was up 2.85% or 0.090 points to 3.250 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which lost 8.03% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.660 in late trade. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) declined 7.63% or 0.180 points to end at 2.180 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL) shed 7.31% or 0.190 points to 2.410.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 777 to 378 and 321 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 0.03% to 14.827.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.26% or 3.20 to $1242.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.83% or 0.44 to hit $53.39 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.81% or 0.50 to trade at $62.19 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7369, while AUD/JPY fell 0.30% to 83.37.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 96.690.