Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ), which rose 9.31% or 0.670 points to trade at 7.870 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 5.86% or 0.160 points to end at 2.890 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) was up 3.62% or 0.170 points to 4.860 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which lost 4.35% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.200 in late trade. Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) declined 4.24% or 3.98 points to end at 89.97 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) shed 3.45% or 0.030 points to 0.840.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 672 to 517 and 458 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 2.32% to 12.895.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.03% or 0.33 to $1246.07 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.16% or 0.07 to hit $43.45 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.26% or 0.12 to trade at $46.16 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.17% to 0.7599, while AUD/JPY rose 0.13% to 84.95.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 97.04.