Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.13%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.13%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU), which rose 8.82% or 0.22 points to trade at 2.75 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) added 6.63% or 0.41 points to end at 6.51 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) was up 6.53% or 2.40 points to 39.16 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH), which lost 4.89% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.44 in late trade. Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) declined 4.22% or 0.21 points to end at 4.66 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) shed 3.35% or 0.07 points to 2.02.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 593 to 482 and 467 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 1.82% to 11.69.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.03% or 0.80 to $2,651.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.22% or 0.86 to hit $71.23 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.05% or 0.77 to trade at $73.98 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.32% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 98.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 100.76.