Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Gold, Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.20% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which rose 7.88% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.985 at the close. Asciano Ltd (ASX:AIO) added 7.15% or 0.580 points to end at 8.690 and Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX) was up 4.18% or 1.430 points to 35.630 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dicksmith Fpo (ASX:DSH), which lost 16.50% or 0.330 points to trade at 1.670 in late trade. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) declined 11.02% or 0.065 points to end at 0.525 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) shed 10.53% or 0.020 points to 0.170.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 570 to 414 and 182 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 0.14% to 19.329.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.12% or 1.30 to $1117.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.79% or 0.34 to hit $42.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.66% or 0.32 to trade at $48.42 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.33% to 0.7348, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 91.39.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 96.89.