Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.37%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 10.50% or 0.210 points to trade at 2.210 at the close. Village Roadshow Ltd (AX:VRL) added 6.59% or 0.300 points to end at 4.850 and Japara Fpo (AX:JHC) was up 5.75% or 0.100 points to 1.840 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Altium Ltd (AX:ALU), which lost 5.11% or 0.505 points to trade at 9.385 in late trade. Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) declined 3.36% or 0.050 points to end at 1.440 and Insurance Australia Group Ltd (AX:IAG) shed 3.20% or 0.180 points to 5.440.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 571 to 517 and 309 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 0.19% to 13.398.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.29% or 3.85 to $1330.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 2.05% or 0.91 to hit $45.35 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.36% or 0.17 to trade at $47.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.61% to 0.7628, while AUD/JPY rose 0.80% to 79.05.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 95.78.