Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Materials, Healthcare and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite declined 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Interfor Corp (TO:IFP), which rose 2.38% or 0.26 points to trade at 11.18 at the close. Avigilon Corp (TO:AVO) added 2.16% or 0.28 points to end at 13.27 and West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd . (TO:WFT) was up 2.14% or 0.83 points to 39.58 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Surge Energy Inc . (TO:SGY), which lost 5.56% or 0.140 points to trade at 2.380 in late trade. Baytex Energy Corp (TO:BTE) declined 5.53% or 0.40 points to end at 6.83 and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (TO:VRX) shed 5.10% or 1.56 points to 29.05.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 818 to 372 and 131 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 up 3.01% to 17.80.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.37% or 4.80 to $1283.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 3.87% or 1.86 to hit $46.15 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.61% or 1.77 to trade at $47.20 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.37% to 0.7716, while CAD/EUR fell 0.15% to 0.6869.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 94.72.