Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.60% 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 1.60% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the were Appen Ltd (ASX:), which rose 6.50% or 1.55 points to trade at 25.40 at the close. Meanwhile, Polynovo Ltd (ASX:) added 4.86% or 0.140 points to end at 3.020 and New Hope Corporation Ltd (ASX:) was up 4.50% or 0.070 points to 1.625 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which fell 9.67% or 0.290 points to trade at 2.710 at the close. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:) declined 7.33% or 0.33 points to end at 4.17 and Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX:) was down 7.06% or 0.900 points to 11.850.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 1074 to 258 and 265 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 7.90% to 17.260 a new 6-months high.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 2.21% or 37.05 to $1639.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.93% or 0.48 to hit $51.91 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.84% or 0.47 to trade at $56.24 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.6619, while AUD/JPY rose 0.35% to 73.36.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 99.213.