Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Telstra Corporation Ltd. (AX:TLS), which rose 8.11% or 0.240 points to trade at 3.200 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 7.14% or 0.320 points to end at 4.800 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) was up 6.80% or 0.200 points to 3.140 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX), which lost 16.54% or 0.440 points to trade at 2.220 in late trade. Resmed Inc DRC (AX:RMD) declined 10.44% or 1.510 points to end at 12.960 and Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX:IPL) shed 7.87% or 0.280 points to 3.280.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 689 to 453 and 336 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 12.03% to 13.424.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.00% or 0.05 to $1303.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.81% or 0.42 to hit $52.41 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.75% or 0.45 to trade at $60.26 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7164, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 78.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 95.407.