Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.15%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.15%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF), which rose 8.97% or 0.59 points to trade at 7.17 at the close. Meanwhile, EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) added 7.43% or 0.07 points to end at 0.94 and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) was up 5.85% or 0.10 points to 1.81 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Breville Group Ltd (ASX:BRG), which fell 8.93% or 2.44 points to trade at 24.88 at the close. James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX) declined 8.70% or 5.15 points to end at 54.05 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was down 6.63% or 0.06 points to 0.84.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 627 to 570 and 391 ended unchanged.

Shares in Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) rose to 52-week highs; rising 5.85% or 0.10 to 1.81.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.80% to 11.52.

Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.02% or 0.40 to $2,033.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.25% or 0.19 to hit $77.11 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.14 to trade at $82.14 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.04% to 97.50.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 104.08.