Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Gold, IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.09%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR), which rose 3.48% or 0.210 points to trade at 6.240 at the close. Meanwhile, G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) added 3.11% or 0.100 points to end at 3.320 and Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL) was up 2.89% or 0.170 points to 6.060 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which fell 5.24% or 0.065 points to trade at 1.175 at the close. Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) declined 4.74% or 0.065 points to end at 1.305 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was down 4.61% or 0.100 points to 2.070.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 600 to 385 and 174 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.22% to 16.340.
Gold for December delivery was down 0.04% or 0.40 to $1096.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.50% or 0.23 to hit $47.16 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.86% or 0.46 to trade at $53.01 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.65% to 0.7316, while AUD/JPY rose 0.90% to 90.39.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.24% at 96.86.