The Australian sharemarket lingered in negative territory on Tuesday, dragged lower by consumer discretionary and communications stocks, off the back of mixed trading on Wall Street.

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 24.6 points or 0.3 per cent lower to 8956.8 points.

Technology company Codan finished at the top of the bourse with gains of 4.9 per cent, followed by mining and metals company South32 (up 4.3 per cent). Vault Minerals finished 3.5 per cent higher.

At the bottom of the index was medical device company Polynovo, down 5.2 per cent, followed by coffee machine maker Breville Group (down 4.5 per cent) and Karoon Energy (down 3.7 per cent).

Consumer discretionary stocks pulled the index lower, declining 1.2 per cent as a sector. Wesfarmers shed 1.3 per cent and JB Hi-Fi dipped 1.5 per cent

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