Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.96% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.96% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Ballard Power Systems Inc (TSX:BLDP), which rose 13.08% or 4.03 points to trade at 34.84 at the close. Shopify Inc (TSX:SHOP) added 6.46% or 88.95 points to end at 1465.00 and Trillium Therapeutics Inc (TSX:TRIL) was up 5.49% or 1.00 points to 19.21 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Yamana Gold Inc (TSX:YRI), which lost 3.65% or 0.28 points to trade at 7.39 in late trade. Alamos Gold Inc (TSX:AGI) declined 3.12% or 0.38 points to end at 11.81 and Dundee Precious Metals Inc (TSX:DPM) shed 2.76% or 0.27 points to 9.53.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 656 to 404 and 82 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 0.39% or 7.45 to $1916.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.34% or 0.17 to hit $50.80 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.06 to trade at $54.36 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7885, while CAD/EUR rose 0.45% to 0.6427.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.33% at 89.793.