Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.69%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, Gold and Financials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.69%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 29.20% or 0.20 points to trade at 0.89 at the close. Meanwhile, Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) added 6.34% or 0.09 points to end at 1.42 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) was up 6.07% or 1.29 points to 22.54 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC), which fell 5.80% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.30 at the close. Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) declined 5.11% or 0.14 points to end at 2.60 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was down 5.00% or 0.02 points to 0.33.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 605 to 468 and 400 ended unchanged.

Shares in Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) fell to 5-year lows; falling 5.11% or 0.14 to 2.60.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.47% to 11.27.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.15% or 3.90 to $2,646.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.26% or 0.18 to hit $69.12 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.14 to trade at $72.62 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.61% to 99.67.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 107.05.