Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Mining, Materials and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were First Quantum Minerals Ltd . (TO:FM), which rose 10.72% or 0.82 points to trade at 8.47 at the close. B2Gold Corp (TO:BTO) added 10.53% or 0.200 points to end at 2.100 and Primero Mining Corp (TO:P) was up 9.35% or 0.230 points to 2.690 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (TO:VRX), which lost 2.88% or 1.30 points to trade at 43.84 in late trade. TransAlta Corp (TO:TA) declined 2.66% or 0.16 points to end at 5.85 and North West Company Inc . (TO:NWC) shed 2.25% or 0.67 points to 29.10.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 779 to 497 and 309 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 down 9.48% to 19.19.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 2.59% or 31.90 to $1262.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 5.94% or 2.16 to hit $38.50 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 3.98% or 1.54 to trade at $40.28 a barrel.
CAD/USD was up 1.86% to 0.7627, while CAD/EUR rose 0.74% to 0.6793.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.02% at 95.67.