Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.66%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.66% to hit a new 1-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Select Harvests Ltd (AX: SHV ), which rose 8.97% or 0.340 points to trade at 4.130 at the close. APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX: APO ) added 6.27% or 0.400 points to end at 6.780 and Broadspectrum Ltd (AX: BRS ) was up 3.02% or 0.035 points to 1.195 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nine Ent Fpo (AX: NEC ), which lost 23.68% or 0.360 points to trade at 1.160 in late trade. Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX: LNG ) declined 11.65% or 0.060 points to end at 0.455 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX: SWM ) shed 10.75% or 0.108 points to 0.892.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 608 to 360 and 311 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 8.62% to 19.010 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.73% or 8.90 to $1228.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.42% or 0.15 to hit $35.55 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.19% or 0.07 to trade at $37.62 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7601, while AUD/JPY fell 0.59% to 84.19.

The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 94.59.