Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Financials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 6.45% or 0.200 points to trade at 3.300 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 6.18% or 0.260 points to end at 4.470 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 5.63% or 0.135 points to 2.535 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which lost 4.12% or 0.115 points to trade at 2.675 in late trade. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) declined 2.87% or 0.013 points to end at 0.422 and TPG Telecom Ltd (AX:TPM) shed 2.61% or 0.180 points to 6.710.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 573 to 509 and 370 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 1.57% to 12.173.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.35% or 4.35 to $1258.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.48% or 0.24 to hit $50.00 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.47% or 0.25 to trade at $52.87 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.41% to 0.7575, while AUD/JPY fell 0.72% to 83.73.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 100.40.