Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Materials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite declined 1.06% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Gildan Activewear Inc. (TO:GIL), which rose 1.69% or 0.58 points to trade at 34.93 at the close. Pure Industrial REIT (TO:AAR_u) added 1.77% or 0.10 points to end at 6.04 and Sierra Wireless Inc . (TO:SW) was up 1.58% or 0.58 points to 37.22 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (TO:VRX), which lost 9.99% or 1.62 points to trade at 14.59 in late trade. Pretium Resources Inc. (TO:PVG) declined 7.53% or 0.99 points to end at 12.16 and NuVista Energy Ltd . (TO:NVA) shed 7.53% or 0.450 points to 5.530.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 826 to 327 and 138 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 7.39% to 15.40 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.45% or 5.45 to $1197.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.01% or 0.49 to hit $47.91 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.47% or 0.24 to trade at $51.11 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7413, while CAD/EUR rose 0.16% to 0.6992.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.40% at 101.66.