Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Healthcare, IT and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE), which rose 4.40% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.610 at the close. TPG Telecom Ltd (AX:TPM) added 4.39% or 0.300 points to end at 7.140 and Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL) was up 4.28% or 1.010 points to 24.630 in late trade.
Biggest losers included New Hope Corporation Ltd (AX:NHC), which lost 11.79% or 0.520 points to trade at 3.890 in late trade. Hub24 Ltd (AX:HUB) declined 4.07% or 0.550 points to end at 12.950 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) shed 3.72% or 0.160 points to 4.140.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 589 to 538 and 361 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 down 1.56% to 11.523.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.35% or 4.55 to $1306.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.13% or 0.08 to hit $59.30 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $67.56 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.05% to 0.7098, while AUD/JPY fell 0.19% to 78.98.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 95.910.