Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.47% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, the declined 0.47%.

The best performers of the session on the were Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:), which rose 3.12% or 0.63 points to trade at 20.83 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:) added 2.72% or 0.26 points to end at 9.81 and Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:) was up 2.58% or 0.12 points to 4.77 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:), which fell 9.61% or 0.11 points to trade at 1.03 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:) declined 9.18% or 0.28 points to end at 2.77 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:) was down 8.76% or 0.06 points to 0.63.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 862 to 427 and 398 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.75% to 12.84.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.10% or 1.85 to $1,783.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.00% or 0.77 to hit $77.70 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.14% or 0.94 to trade at $83.62 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.46% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.68% to 92.18.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 105.29.