Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Healthcare and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nine Ent Fpo (AX:NEC), which rose 4.07% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.900 at the close. Regis Healthcare Ltd (AX:REG) added 3.30% or 0.130 points to end at 4.070 and Iron Mountain Inc (AX:INM) was up 2.81% or 1.21 points to 44.27 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which lost 9.92% or 0.380 points to trade at 3.450 in late trade. Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW) declined 4.84% or 0.440 points to end at 8.650 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) shed 3.61% or 0.410 points to 10.960.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 592 to 387 and 300 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 2.96% to 16.256 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.59% or 7.45 to $1280.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.55% or 0.26 to hit $47.12 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.70% or 0.34 to trade at $48.95 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.53% to 0.7652, while AUD/JPY rose 0.54% to 80.22.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.09% at 98.41.