Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the S&P/TSX Canadian Information Technology, S&P/TSX Canadian Consumer Staples and S&P/TSX Canadian Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Sierra Wireless Inc. (TO:SW), which rose 4.32% or 1.99 points to trade at 48.08 at the close. Whitecap Resources Inc. (TO:WCP) added 4.27% or 0.48 points to end at 11.71 and Norbord Inc. (TO:NBD) was up 4.21% or 1.13 points to 27.99 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (TO:PRE), which lost 12.12% or 0.40 points to trade at 2.90 in late trade. Athabasca Oil Corporation (TO:ATH) declined 7.53% or 0.14 points to end at 1.72 and Canexus Corporation (TO:CUS) shed 7.14% or 0.17 points to 2.21.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 855 to 576 and 186 ended unchanged on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of options, was down 0.60% to 19.86.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 2.36% or 30.40 to $1256.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 0.08% or 0.04 to hit $44.48 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 1.23% or 0.59 to trade at $49.06 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.64% to 0.7929, while CAD/EUR fell 0.96% to 0.7003.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 94.94.