Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API), which rose 7.07% or 0.103 points to trade at 1.552 at the close. Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) added 3.41% or 0.200 points to end at 6.070 and Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT) was up 2.63% or 1.660 points to 64.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC), which lost 4.37% or 0.750 points to trade at 16.400 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) declined 4.09% or 0.070 points to end at 1.640 and Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (AX:DMP) shed 3.93% or 2.100 points to 51.340.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 772 to 498 and 440 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 5.24% to 12.776.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.28% or 3.50 to $1265.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.21% or 0.14 to hit $68.22 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.13% or 0.10 to trade at $74.65 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7419, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 81.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 93.90.