Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.09%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Utilities, Resources and Metals&Mining sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.09% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 10.20% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.54 at the close. Meanwhile, Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 3.75% or 0.03 points to end at 0.83 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was up 3.34% or 0.07 points to 2.01 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were South32 Ltd (ASX:S32), which fell 4.49% or 0.16 points to trade at 3.40 at the close. Ansell Ltd (ASX:ANN) declined 4.43% or 1.09 points to end at 23.51 and Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:SVW) was down 3.96% or 1.46 points to 35.40.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 775 to 399 and 374 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.96% to 11.36 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.31% or 6.45 to $2,052.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $72.59 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.06% or 0.05 to trade at $78.20 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.64% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.38% to 96.69.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.33% at 102.66.