Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, IT and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were CSR Ltd (AX:CSR), which rose 4.83% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.820 at the close. TPG Telecom Ltd (AX:TPM) added 3.69% or 0.240 points to end at 6.740 and Abacus Property Group (AX:ABP) was up 3.60% or 0.120 points to 3.450 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX), which lost 6.45% or 0.060 points to trade at 0.870 in late trade. Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) declined 6.23% or 0.780 points to end at 11.750 and Smartgroup Corporation Ltd (AX:SIQ) shed 5.86% or 0.570 points to 9.150.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 772 to 325 and 305 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 9.45% to 17.677.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.04% or 0.45 to $1251.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.07% or 1.04 to hit $49.16 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 1.81% or 1.08 to trade at $58.53 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.18% to 0.7189, while AUD/JPY fell 0.02% to 80.95.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 96.588.