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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.73%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV), which rose 6.76% or 1.30 points to trade at 20.53 at the close. Meanwhile, Janus Henderson Group PLC DRC (ASX:JHG) added 4.56% or 2.04 points to end at 46.79 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was up 3.99% or 0.13 points to 3.39 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA), which fell 9.36% or 0.66 points to trade at 6.39 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) declined 9.32% or 0.15 points to end at 1.41 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) was down 8.29% or 0.85 points to 9.40.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 951 to 428 and 373 ended unchanged.

Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) fell to 52-week lows; down 9.32% or 0.15 to 1.41.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.90% to 19.97.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.27% or 24.90 to $1,935.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 5.29% or 5.45 to hit $97.56 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 5.46% or 5.84 to trade at $101.06 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 0.72, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 84.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.38% at 98.65.

(Source)