Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Rea Group Ltd (AX:REA), which rose 3.71% or 1.860 points to trade at 52.010 at the close. Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) added 3.45% or 0.020 points to end at 0.600 and Austal Ltd (AX:ASB) was up 3.27% or 0.050 points to 1.580 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Broadspectrum Ltd (AX:BRS), which lost 10.20% or 0.128 points to trade at 1.123 in late trade. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) declined 6.25% or 0.210 points to end at 3.150 and Programmed Maintenance Services Ltd (AX:PRG) shed 5.65% or 0.085 points to 1.420.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 569 to 465 and 343 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 8.41% to 17.922.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.16% or 1.95 to $1238.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.19% or 0.08 to hit $42.72 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.09 to trade at $44.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.06% to 0.7710, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 85.50.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 94.72.