Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA), which rose 13.13% or 0.440 points to trade at 3.790 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 7.08% or 0.250 points to end at 3.780 and Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG) was up 6.90% or 0.140 points to 2.170 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which lost 11.46% or 2.350 points to trade at 18.150 in late trade. Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) declined 8.03% or 0.220 points to end at 2.520 and Wesfarmers Ltd (AX:WES) shed 7.41% or 2.610 points to 32.610.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 687 to 470 and 355 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 5.73% to 12.256.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.09% or 1.25 to $1330.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.50% or 0.28 to hit $55.20 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.17 to trade at $64.74 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7156, while AUD/JPY fell 0.38% to 79.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 96.255.