Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.35%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals&Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.35%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:CCP), which rose 3.34% or 0.54 points to trade at 16.71 at the close. Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV) added 2.00% or 0.61 points to end at 31.16 and Fisher&Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH) was up 1.98% or 0.62 points to 32.01 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which lost 5.21% or 1.06 points to trade at 19.29 in late trade. IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) declined 4.82% or 0.28 points to end at 5.53 and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) shed 4.42% or 0.31 points to 6.70.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 650 to 407 and 380 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 1.16% to 12.14.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.15% or 4.10 to $2,661.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.57% or 1.21 to hit $75.93 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 1.52% or 1.23 to trade at $79.70 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.36% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 99.56.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 102.17.