Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.07%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.07%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW), which rose 3.77% or 1.31 points to trade at 36.08 at the close. Meanwhile, Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD) added 2.69% or 0.48 points to end at 18.35 and Coles Group Ltd (ASX:COL) was up 2.36% or 0.41 points to 17.76 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which fell 24.74% or 1.90 points to trade at 5.78 at the close. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) declined 17.40% or 0.29 points to end at 1.40 and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) was down 11.03% or 3.12 points to 25.17.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 821 to 485 and 405 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.88% to 12.83.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.51% or 9.75 to $1,913.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.24% or 0.19 to hit $77.71 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.20% or 0.17 to trade at $84.33 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.38% to 0.70, while AUD/JPY fell 0.53% to 91.60.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 102.08.