Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.30%

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Clean Technology, Energy and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.30% to hit a new 6-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Ballard Power Systems Inc (TSX:BLDP), which rose 7.59% or 1.89 points to trade at 26.79 at the close. Crescent Point Energy Corp . (TSX:CPG) added 7.27% or 0.20 points to end at 2.95 and Cenovus Energy Inc (TSX:CVE) was up 3.32% or 0.24 points to 7.47 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Trillium Therapeutics Inc (TSX:TRIL), which lost 9.04% or 1.77 points to trade at 17.80 in late trade. Real Matters Inc (TSX:REAL) declined 4.74% or 0.92 points to end at 18.48 and HudBay Minerals Inc (TSX:HBM) shed 3.83% or 0.35 points to 8.78.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 554 to 512 and 101 ended unchanged on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was unchanged 0% to 11.27.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.63% or 11.75 to $1877.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.20% or 0.09 to hit $45.67 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.23% or 0.11 to trade at $48.90 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7803, while CAD/EUR fell 0.10% to 0.6444.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 90.927.