Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.51%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.51%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ), which rose 4.18% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.490 at the close. Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ) added 3.18% or 0.090 points to end at 2.920 and Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ) was up 2.08% or 0.050 points to 2.450 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ), which lost 5.12% or 0.860 points to trade at 15.940 in late trade. Altium Ltd (AX: ALU ) declined 4.64% or 1.220 points to end at 25.070 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ) shed 3.82% or 0.095 points to 2.395.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 690 to 477 and 372 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 1.94% to 13.080.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.12% or 1.40 to $1204.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.39% or 0.27 to hit $68.41 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.53% or 0.41 to trade at $77.64 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.36% to 0.7208, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 80.71.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 94.03.