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

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

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

The best performers 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. Meanwhile, Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) added 4.09% or 1.50 points to end at 38.20 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) was up 2.15% or 0.01 points to 0.47 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 26.09% or 0.12 points to trade at 0.34 at the close. Domino’S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP) declined 6.26% or 2.11 points to end at 31.60 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) was down 2.64% or 0.28 points to 10.34.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 630 to 400 and 476 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.58% to 13.66.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.07% or 1.80 to $2,744.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, 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 0.22% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.42% to 100.61.

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