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 Healthcare, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.66%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD), which rose 3.04% or 0.35 points to trade at 11.88 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) added 3.01% or 0.04 points to end at 1.37 and Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE) was up 2.96% or 0.29 points to 10.09 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which lost 8.40% or 0.20 points to trade at 2.18 in late trade. Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA) declined 6.67% or 0.19 points to end at 2.66 and Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) shed 6.20% or 0.22 points to 3.33.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 722 to 397 and 433 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 11.90% to 13.34 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.30% or 8.20 to $2,747.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.37% or 0.26 to hit $69.78 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.29 to trade at $74.00 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.47% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.51% to 100.94.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 103.76.