Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE), which rose 5.22% or 0.44 points to trade at 8.87 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 4.00% or 0.02 points to end at 0.52 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) was up 3.83% or 0.04 points to 0.95 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS), which lost 3.25% or 0.12 points to trade at 3.57 in late trade. Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) declined 3.00% or 1.61 points to end at 52.05 and Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) shed 2.97% or 0.02 points to 0.49.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 637 to 512 and 417 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 4.18% to 11.60.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.30% or 7.25 to $2,436.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.72% or 0.58 to hit $80.26 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.68% or 0.58 to trade at $84.27 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.27% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 106.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 104.08.