Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.40%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.40%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 8.47% or 0.16 points to trade at 2.05 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) added 4.09% or 1.50 points to end at 38.20 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC) was up 2.40% or 0.03 points to 1.29 in late trade.

Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which lost 26.09% or 0.12 points to trade at 0.34 in late trade. Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP) declined 6.26% or 2.11 points to end at 31.60 and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) shed 2.95% or 0.18 points to 5.93.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 630 to 399 and 486 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 2.58% to 13.66.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.05% or 1.50 to $2,744.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.08% or 0.06 to hit $71.53 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.08 to trade at $75.16 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.21% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 100.60.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 103.82.