Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 1.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Seabridge Gold Inc . (TSX:SEA), which rose 19.06% or 2.43 points to trade at 15.18 at the close. Manulife Financial Corporation (TSX:MFC) added 8.74% or 2.68 points to end at 33.35 and Birchcliff Energy Ltd . (TSX:BIR) was up 7.68% or 0.37 points to 5.19 in late trade.
Biggest losers included MTY Food Group Inc (TSX:MTY), which lost 13.87% or 8.09 points to trade at 50.25 in late trade. Mullen Group Ltd . (TSX:MTL) declined 4.89% or 0.75 points to end at 14.60 and Aritzia Inc (TSX:ATZ) shed 3.06% or 1.16 points to 36.76.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 706 to 242 and 103 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 5.16% to 10.66.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.57% or 11.50 to $2,015.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.02% or 1.55 to hit $78.19 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.57% or 1.28 to trade at $82.88 a barrel.
CAD/USD was unchanged 0.56% to 0.74, while CAD/EUR unchanged 0.15% to 0.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.41% at 104.19.