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

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Financials, Consumer Staples and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.

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

The best performers 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. Meanwhile, 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.

The worst performers of the session were Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH), which fell 4.89% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.44 at the close. Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) declined 4.22% or 0.21 points to end at 4.66 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 3.35% or 0.07 points to 2.02.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 593 to 482 and 467 ended unchanged.

Shares in Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) fell to 3-years lows; down 4.22% or 0.21 to 4.66.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.82% to 11.69.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.02% or 0.60 to $2,651.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.21% or 0.85 to hit $71.22 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.04% or 0.76 to trade at $73.97 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.33% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.14% to 98.33.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 100.75.