Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Energy and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.57%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which rose 5.26% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.200 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) added 5.10% or 0.050 points to end at 1.030 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SIP) was up 4.17% or 0.035 points to 0.875 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI), which lost 5.56% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.170 in late trade. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) declined 4.67% or 0.120 points to end at 2.450 and G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD) shed 4.53% or 0.380 points to 8.000.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 546 to 462 and 198 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 1.03% to 14.554.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.24% or 2.90 to $1200.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.33% or 0.76 to hit $56.23 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 1.21% or 0.79 to trade at $64.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.7874, while AUD/JPY rose 0.24% to 93.75.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.08% at 96.97.