Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.58%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.58%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which rose 5.00% or 0.07 points to trade at 1.36 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) added 4.67% or 0.04 points to end at 0.79 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.17% or 0.07 points to 1.63 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Cochlear Ltd (ASX:COH), which fell 6.51% or 20.09 points to trade at 288.36 at the close. Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) declined 4.68% or 0.38 points to end at 7.74 and Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) was down 3.45% or 2.62 points to 73.28.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 672 to 479 and 336 ended unchanged.

Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) rose to 52-week highs; rising 4.67% or 0.04 to 0.79.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.93% to 11.91.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.00% or 0.10 to $2,042.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.23% or 0.17 to hit $72.95 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.24% or 0.19 to trade at $78.18 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.46% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 96.67.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 104.20.