Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.73%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL), which rose 5.58% or 0.065 points to trade at 1.230 at the close. Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (ASX:SXL) added 4.48% or 0.045 points to end at 1.050 and Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) was up 2.94% or 0.005 points to 0.170 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Virtus Health Ltd (ASX:VRT), which lost 19.92% or 1.520 points to trade at 6.110 in late trade. AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) declined 5.54% or 0.080 points to end at 1.365 and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) shed 5.51% or 0.150 points to 2.570.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 628 to 399 and 191 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 6.22% to 17.086.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1188.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.32% or 0.19 to hit $60.39 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.35% or 0.23 to trade at $65.11 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 1.26% to 0.7700, while AUD/JPY rose 1.06% to 95.90.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.26% at 97.28.