Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.40%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.40% to hit a new 6-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were OceanaGold Corporation (TSX:OGC), which rose 29.67% or 0.540 points to trade at 2.360 at the close. New Gold Inc (TSX:NGD) added 8.24% or 0.210 points to end at 2.760 and Alamos Gold Inc (TSX:AGI) was up 7.89% or 0.88 points to 12.03 in late trade.

Biggest losers included First Quantum Minerals Ltd . (TSX:FM), which lost 5.79% or 1.21 points to trade at 19.68 in late trade. Tourmaline Oil Corp . (TSX:TOU) declined 4.00% or 0.71 points to end at 17.03 and Inter Pipeline Ltd (TSX:IPL) shed 3.58% or 0.49 points to 13.19.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 531 to 491 and 107 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 1.21% or 22.32 to $1862.32 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.78% or 0.36 to hit $45.90 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.71% or 0.35 to trade at $48.90 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7811, while CAD/EUR fell 0.09% to 0.6442.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 90.785.