Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.31%

Australia stocks lower at close of trade

Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.31%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Rea Group Ltd, which rose 3.71% or 1.860 points to trade at 52.010 at the close. Meanwhile, Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd added 3.45% or 0.020 points to end at 0.600 and Austal Ltd  was up 3.27% or 0.050 points to 1.580 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Broadspectrum Ltd, which fell 10.20% or 0.128 points to trade at 1.123 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) declined 6.25% or 0.210 points to end at 3.150 and Programmed Maintenance Services Ltd was down 5.65% or 0.085 points to 1.420.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 569 to 466 and 342 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 8.41% to 17.922.

Gold for June delivery was down 0.17% or 2.10 to $1238.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.21% or 0.09 to hit $42.73 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.23% or 0.10 to trade at $44.42 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.06% to 0.7710, while AUD/JPY fell 0.33% to 85.51.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 94.73.