Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Materials, IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd . (TO:AEM), which rose 8.26% or 2.97 points to trade at 38.93 at the close. Primero Mining Corp (TO:P) added 8.06% or 0.250 points to end at 3.350 and B2Gold Corp (TO:BTO) was up 7.74% or 0.120 points to 1.670 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Newalta Corporation (TO:NAL), which lost 11.86% or 0.46 points to trade at 3.42 in late trade. Bankers Petroleum Ltd . (TO:BNK) declined 9.76% or 0.120 points to end at 1.110 and Kelt Exploration Ltd. (TO:KEL) shed 8.12% or 0.38 points to 4.30.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 703 to 688 and 192 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 8.14% to 17.15.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 2.41% or 25.60 to $1086.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 2.37% or 0.97 to hit $40.10 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 1.45% or 0.64 to trade at $43.20 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7478, while CAD/EUR rose 0.50% to 0.6879.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.54% at 98.34.