Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Norbord Inc. (TO:NBD), which rose 4.09% or 1.06 points to trade at 27.00 at the close. Canadian Oil Sands Limited (TO:COS) added 3.55% or 0.34 points to end at 9.91 and BRP Inc. (TO:DOO) was up 3.30% or 0.76 points to 23.76 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Major Drilling Group International (TO:MDI), which lost 5.80% or 0.43 points to trade at 6.98 in late trade. B2Gold Corp. (TO:BTO) declined 4.81% or 0.100 points to end at 1.980 and Novagold Resources Inc. (TO:NG) shed 4.63% or 0.18 points to 3.71.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 775 to 630 and 186 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 5.29% to 16.53.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.57% or 6.80 to $1203.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 4.21% or 2.07 to hit $51.28 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 4.56% or 2.58 to trade at $59.05 a barrel.
CAD/USD was up 0.39% to 0.8020, while CAD/EUR rose 1.11% to 0.7364.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.46% at 97.52.