Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.29%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary , Industrials and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.29%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ), which rose 4.87% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.800 at the close. Iress Ltd (AX: IRE ) added 3.03% or 0.370 points to end at 12.600 and CYBG PLC (AX: CYB ) was up 2.69% or 0.100 points to 3.820 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ), which lost 6.25% or 0.240 points to trade at 3.600 in late trade. Syrah Resources Ltd (AX: SYR ) declined 5.93% or 0.080 points to end at 1.270 and Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ) shed 5.56% or 0.130 points to 2.210.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 696 to 450 and 333 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 4.54% to 12.289.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.14% or 1.75 to $1289.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.51% or 0.29 to hit $56.30 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.49% or 0.32 to trade at $65.35 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7074, while AUD/JPY fell 0.11% to 79.17.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.655.