Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.80%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN), which rose 2.33% or 0.050 points to trade at 2.200 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) added 2.21% or 0.030 points to end at 1.385 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) was up 1.99% or 0.055 points to 2.825 in late trade.
Biggest losers included GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA), which lost 6.97% or 0.200 points to trade at 2.670 in late trade. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) declined 5.59% or 0.048 points to end at 0.802 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) shed 4.86% or 0.170 points to 3.330.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 600 to 418 and 340 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 3.41% to 13.055 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.05% or 0.60 to $1185.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.19% or 0.10 to hit $52.06 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.11 to trade at $55.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.26% to 0.7374, while AUD/JPY fell 0.22% to 85.15.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.30% at 101.61.