Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.85%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment , IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.85%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ), which rose 5.41% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.310 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ) added 3.21% or 0.070 points to end at 2.250 and Viva Energy Reit Ltd (AX: VVR ) was up 2.54% or 0.060 points to 2.420 in late trade.

Biggest losers included BT Investment Management Ltd (AX: BTT ), which lost 4.91% or 0.520 points to trade at 10.060 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (AX: BPT ) declined 4.40% or 0.035 points to end at 0.760 and Abacus Property Group (AX: ABP ) shed 4.36% or 0.130 points to 2.850.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 655 to 390 and 317 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 7.63% to 13.761 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.93% or 11.10 to $1207.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.10% or 0.05 to hit $52.42 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.17 to trade at $55.69 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.40% to 0.7508, while AUD/JPY fell 0.07% to 85.33.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.34% at 101.18.