Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.12%

Stock market

Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Telecoms Services and Utilities sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.12%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT), which rose 4.50% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.580 at the close. Meanwhile,Orora Fpo (AX:ORA) added 3.96% or 0.120 points to end at 3.150 and Aconex Ltd(AX:ACX) was up 3.86% or 0.300 points to 8.080 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which fell 16.71% or 0.300 points to trade at 1.495 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) declined 11.25% or 0.415 points to end at 3.275 and Genworth Fp (AX:GMA) was down 6.36% or 0.200 points to 2.945.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 565 to 502 and 334 ended unchanged.

Shares in Orora Fpo (AX:ORA) rose to all time highs; gaining 3.96% or 0.120 to 3.150.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.90% to 12.443.

Gold for December delivery was up 0.66% or 8.85 to $1353.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.50% or 0.23 to hit $45.48 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.30 to trade at $48.05 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.30% to 0.7696, while AUD/JPY fell 0.72% to 77.14.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.38% at 95.22.

Source by Investing.com