Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.36%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT , Energy and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.36%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ausdrill Ltd (AX: ASL ), which rose 9.18% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.725 at the close. Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX: SGM ) added 5.92% or 0.730 points to end at 13.060 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ) was up 4.81% or 0.130 points to 2.830 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX: WHC ), which lost 7.91% or 0.405 points to trade at 4.715 in late trade. Spark Infrastructure Group (AX: SKI ) declined 3.75% or 0.090 points to end at 2.310 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ) shed 3.30% or 0.090 points to 2.640.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 676 to 507 and 378 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 2.44% to 12.044.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.11% or 1.30 to $1205.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.46% or 0.32 to hit $70.12 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.12% or 0.09 to trade at $78.06 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.21% to 0.7228, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 80.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 95.18.