Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.16%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.16%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN), which rose 22.96% or 0.62 points to trade at 3.32 at the close. Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) added 5.39% or 0.81 points to end at 15.85 and Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) was up 4.44% or 0.10 points to 2.35 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which lost 8.37% or 0.19 points to trade at 2.08 in late trade. Deterra Royalties Ltd (ASX:DRR) declined 6.11% or 0.24 points to end at 3.69 and IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH) shed 5.22% or 0.35 points to 6.35.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 609 to 492 and 420 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 3.53% to 11.21 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.13% or 3.20 to $2,552.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.08% or 0.06 to hit $77.36 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.02 to trade at $80.34 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.39% to 98.25.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 100.74.