Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.49%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ), which rose 5.84% or 0.160 points to trade at 2.900 at the close. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX: RFG ) added 4.36% or 0.190 points to end at 4.550 and Ardent Leisure Group (AX: AAD ) was up 3.58% or 0.065 points to 1.880 in late trade.

Biggest losers included HT&E Ltd (AX: HT1 ), which lost 12.20% or 0.250 points to trade at 1.800 in late trade. Technology One Ltd (AX: TNE ) declined 10.26% or 0.520 points to end at 4.550 and APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX: APO ) shed 6.64% or 0.310 points to 4.360.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 616 to 508 and 384 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 3.25% to 10.909.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.24% or 3.01 to $1272.79 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.32% or 0.16 to hit $50.42 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.22 to trade at $55.90 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.36% to 0.7799, while AUD/JPY fell 0.06% to 88.20.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 93.70.