Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, Consumer Staples and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV), which rose 4.99% or 0.270 points to trade at 5.680 at the close. Technology One Ltd (AX:TNE) added 4.88% or 0.245 points to end at 5.270 and Corp Trav F (AX:CTD) was up 3.68% or 0.515 points to 14.515 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT), which lost 4.80% or 1.610 points to trade at 31.940 in late trade. GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA) declined 3.86% or 0.090 points to end at 2.240 and Nine Ent Fpo (AX:NEC) shed 3.29% or 0.040 points to 1.175.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 573 to 412 and 359 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 down 0.61% to 17.664.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.56% or 7.00 to $1244.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.44% or 0.21 to hit $47.87 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.52% or 0.25 to trade at $48.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7190, while AUD/JPY fell 0.44% to 78.56.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.08% at 95.31.