Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Information Technology, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.52%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS), which rose 7.28% or 0.110 points to trade at 1.620 at the close. Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX:CCL) added 6.31% or 0.630 points to end at 10.610 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) was up 5.85% or 0.430 points to 7.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included GWA Group Ltd (ASX:GWA), which lost 13.10% or 0.380 points to trade at 2.520 in late trade. Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK) declined 8.70% or 1.630 points to end at 17.100 and Mount Gibson Iron Ltd (ASX:MGX) shed 6.25% or 0.015 points to 0.225.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 309 to 257 and 34 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 0.74% to 16.036.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.07% or 0.90 to $1228.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 0.64% or 0.34 to hit $54.02 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.80% or 0.49 to trade at $62.11 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.33% to 0.7799, while AUD/JPY rose 0.35% to 92.42.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 94.34.