Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.06% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.06%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc (TSX:ATDb), which rose 5.26% or 2.44 points to trade at 48.85 at the close. B2Gold Corp (TSX:BTO) added 4.21% or 0.21 points to end at 5.33 and HudBay Minerals Inc (TSX:HBM) was up 3.29% or 0.28 points to 8.78 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Denison Mines Corp (TSX:DML), which lost 5.88% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.28 in late trade. MEG Energy Corp (TSX:MEG) declined 5.57% or 0.48 points to end at 8.13 and Canfor Corporation (TSX:CFP) shed 5.12% or 1.38 points to 25.59.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 574 to 463 and 102 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 August delivery was up 0.32% or 5.75 to $1830.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.23% or 1.63 to hit $71.50 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 2.02% or 1.51 to trade at $73.25 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.82% to 0.7930, while CAD/EUR fell 0.56% to 0.6715.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 92.612.