Australia stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.38%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which rose 3.17% or 0.080 points to trade at 2.600 at the close. Meanwhile, Pact Group Holdings Ltd (AX:PGH) added 2.32% or 0.080 points to end at 3.530 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 1.89% or 0.080 points to 4.310 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU), which fell 10.81% or 0.560 points to trade at 4.620 at the close. Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) declined 9.40% or 2.220 points to end at 21.390 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was down 7.40% or 0.370 points to 4.630.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 796 to 336 and 374 ended unchanged.
Shares in Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU) fell to 5-year lows; down 10.81% or 0.560 to 4.620.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.87% to 17.400.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.16% or 2.00 to $1223.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.38% or 0.22 to hit $56.98 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.57% or 0.38 to trade at $66.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.23% to 0.7277, while AUD/JPY fell 0.26% to 81.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 96.10.
