Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Healthcare and Clean Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Just Energy Group Inc . (TO:JE), which rose 9.17% or 0.64 points to trade at 7.62 at the close. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (TO:AQN) added 6.92% or 0.63 points to end at 9.74 and Russel Metals Inc . (TO:RUS) was up 6.50% or 1.32 points to 21.64 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Trican Well Service Ltd . (TO:TCW), which lost 33.33% or 0.66 points to trade at 1.32 in late trade. Intertain Group (TO:IT) declined 10.45% or 1.64 points to end at 14.06 and Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (TO:PWT) shed 10.00% or 0.13 points to 1.17.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 674 to 657 and 193 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 0.74% to 16.12.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.08% or 0.90 to $1114.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.21% or 0.09 to hit $42.14 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.74% or 0.86 to trade at $48.77 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.25% to 0.7637, while CAD/EUR rose 0.09% to 0.6873.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.24% at 96.60.