Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Mining, Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.20%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Interfor Corp (TO:IFP), which rose 5.33% or 0.56 points to trade at 11.07 at the close. Pretium Resources Inc. (TO:PVG) added 5.32% or 0.73 points to end at 14.46 and Amaya Inc (TO:AYA) was up 5.31% or 1.00 points to 19.82 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Encana Corporation (TO:ECA), which lost 4.56% or 0.48 points to trade at 10.05 in late trade. Parex Resources Inc (TO:PXT) declined 4.21% or 0.550 points to end at 12.510 and Methanex Corporation (TO:MX) shed 3.84% or 1.50 points to 37.59.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 723 to 436 and 143 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 11.74% to 13.16.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.14% or 1.85 to $1325.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 3.01% or 1.50 to hit $48.38 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 3.00% or 1.54 to trade at $49.78 a barrel.
CAD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7732, while CAD/EUR rose 0.24% to 0.6966.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.30% at 95.98.