Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, Real Estate Investment and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which rose 6.76% or 0.140 points to trade at 2.210 at the close. Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX:IAG) added 4.31% or 0.240 points to end at 5.810 and Spotless Fp (ASX:SPO) was up 3.77% or 0.080 points to 2.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 8.02% or 0.610 points to trade at 7.000 in late trade. Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) declined 6.07% or 0.150 points to end at 2.320 and Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) shed 5.98% or 0.610 points to 9.590.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 608 to 415 and 209 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 1.16% to 17.245.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.05% or 0.60 to $1186.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.84% or 0.51 to hit $60.51 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.36% or 0.23 to trade at $64.18 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.23% to 0.7748, while AUD/JPY fell 0.06% to 95.78.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.15% at 94.92.