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 Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Utilities sectors led shares lower.

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

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS), which rose 15.56% or 0.18 points to trade at 1.30 at the close. Meanwhile, Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE) added 12.50% or 1.00 points to end at 9.00 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was up 12.50% or 0.02 points to 0.18 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS), which fell 6.69% or 0.29 points to trade at 4.11 at the close. IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) declined 5.02% or 0.41 points to end at 7.75 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) was down 4.81% or 0.30 points to 5.94.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 649 to 516 and 342 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.05% to 11.06.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.12% or 2.55 to $2,123.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.32% or 0.25 to hit $78.49 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.19% or 0.16 to trade at $82.64 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.18% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.18% to 97.81.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 103.82.