Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.35%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:CGC), which rose 4.00% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.860 at the close. Meanwhile, Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:SAR) added 3.48% or 0.13 points to end at 3.87 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was up 3.09% or 0.390 points to 13.000 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB), which fell 13.86% or 1.99 points to trade at 12.37 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (ASX:ORE) declined 7.91% or 0.28 points to end at 3.26 and Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH) was down 7.65% or 0.590 points to 7.120.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 976 to 297 and 277 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 21.93% to 14.572 a new 3-months high.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.05% or 0.75 to $1578.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $53.16 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.05 to trade at $58.53 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.6757, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 73.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.792.