The Australian sharemarket still ended lower on Tuesday after clawing back most of its early losses.

At the official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index slipped 5.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 4669.8, while the broader All Ordinaries index eased 5.2 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 4717.

Among the sectors, financials advanced 0.1 per cent, but materials reversed 0.5 per cent and gold stocks fell 1.2 per cent.

"After an initially weak start, the market recovered to settle in the neutral position for much of the session. Falls on Wall Street flowed though to our market but it wasn't enough to damage overall sentiment," according to CMC Markets senior dealer Rob Mulcahy.

"The turnaround, ironically, happened in the banking space. Given the banks led Wall Street down, it was surprising to see them lift the local bourse fractionally into positive territory," he said.

The big four banks were mostly positive, as ANZ Banking Group added 0.49 per cent to $24.32, National Australia Bank put on 14 cents to $26.14 and Westpac was 7 cents higher at $24.02. Commonwealth Bank of Australia bucked the sector trend, as it softened 0.49 per cent to $52.60.

Investment bank Macquarie Group was flat at $37.30.

Resources companies were mixed, with BHP Billiton down 0.57 per cent to $39.43. Rio Tinto had lost 0.19 per cent to $77. Junior miner Fortescue Metals Group rose 0.97 per cent to $5.18.

Gold miner Newcrest Mining dumped 0.80 per cent to $39.38, despite record gold prices.