Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.67%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Virgin Money PLC (ASX:VUK), which rose 2.61% or 0.08 points to trade at 3.15 at the close. Meanwhile, Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) added 1.81% or 0.22 points to end at 12.39 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) was up 1.72% or 1.99 points to 117.39 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 8.68% or 0.165 points to trade at 1.735 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) declined 4.44% or 0.020 points to end at 0.430 and Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:PDL) was down 4.39% or 0.30 points to 6.54.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 881 to 488 and 423 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 6.26% to 12.848.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.05% or 0.90 to $1865.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.74% or 0.59 to hit $80.34 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.93% or 0.76 to trade at $82.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7339, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 83.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 95.477.