Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.57%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.57%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aconex Ltd (AX: ACX ), which rose 4.30% or 0.260 points to trade at 6.300 at the close. News Corp B (AX: NWS ) added 3.24% or 0.560 points to end at 17.820 and Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX: SGM ) was up 2.17% or 0.190 points to 8.940 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Broadspectrum Ltd (AX: BRS ), which lost 6.64% or 0.085 points to trade at 1.195 in late trade. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX: BAL ) declined 6.54% or 0.710 points to end at 10.140 and Mineral Resources Ltd (AX: MIN ) shed 5.39% or 0.320 points to 5.620.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 588 to 323 and 272 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 16.06% to 17.839.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.16% or 1.90 to $1220.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.71% or 0.28 to hit $39.11 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.88% or 0.36 to trade at $40.51 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7542, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 85.66.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.09% at 96.08.