Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.66%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Healthcare , A-REITs and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.66%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC ), which rose 3.87% or 4.05 points to trade at 108.70 at the close. Meanwhile, G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM ) added 3.01% or 0.04 points to end at 1.37 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX ) was up 2.53% or 0.05 points to 2.03 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV ), which fell 8.40% or 0.20 points to trade at 2.18 at the close. Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA ) declined 6.67% or 0.19 points to end at 2.66 and Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS ) was down 6.20% or 0.22 points to 3.33.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 715 to 377 and 416 ended unchanged.

Shares in Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA ) fell to 52-week lows; falling 6.67% or 0.19 to 2.66. Shares in Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS ) fell to 3-years lows; falling 6.20% or 0.22 to 3.33.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 11.90% to 13.34 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.30% or 8.35 to $2,747.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.36% or 0.25 to hit $69.79 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.38% or 0.28 to trade at $74.01 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.47% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.51% to 100.94.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 103.76.

Source: Investing.com