Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.10%

© Reuters. Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.10%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT, Energy and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.10%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Breville Group Ltd (ASX:BRG), which rose 5.98% or 0.960 points to trade at 17.010 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) added 5.10% or 0.025 points to end at 0.515 and Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) was up 4.18% or 0.080 points to 1.995 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT), which lost 4.85% or 1.310 points to trade at 25.690 in late trade. Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) declined 4.85% or 0.220 points to end at 4.320 and Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (ASX:RWC) shed 4.67% or 0.170 points to 3.470.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 639 to 538 and 363 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 0.85% to 11.672.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.25% or 3.45 to $1396.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.38% or 0.22 to hit $57.44 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.31% or 0.20 to trade at $63.91 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.24% to 0.6953, while AUD/JPY fell 0.17% to 75.64.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 97.058.