Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.11%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Healthcare and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.11%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 72.07% or 0.40 points to trade at 0.95 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 10.00% or 0.02 points to end at 0.19 and Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) was up 9.77% or 0.22 points to 2.42 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA), which fell 13.42% or 0.37 points to trade at 2.35 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) declined 7.55% or 0.11 points to end at 1.28 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) was down 6.14% or 0.92 points to 14.07.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 655 to 556 and 350 ended unchanged.

Shares in Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA) fell to 3-years lows; down 13.42% or 0.37 to 2.35.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.84% to 9.97.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.78% or 17.55 to $2,274.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.51% or 0.43 to hit $84.14 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.49% or 0.43 to trade at $87.85 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.09% to 98.50.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 104.80.