Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Hudson's Bay Company (TO:HBC), which rose 19.74% or 4.38 points to trade at 26.57 at the close. Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (TO:PWT) added 8.80% or 0.22 points to end at 2.72 and Lightstream Resources Ltd (TO:LTS) was up 7.44% or 0.09 points to 1.30 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Newalta Corporation (TO:NAL), which lost 5.44% or 0.86 points to trade at 14.94 in late trade. Autocanada Inc (TO:ACQ) declined 4.10% or 2.01 points to end at 47.01 and Canfor Corporation (TO:CFP) shed 3.06% or 0.92 points to 29.15.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 760 to 697 and 193 ended unchanged on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of options, was down 4.50% to 14.87 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.58% or 6.90 to $1204.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 3.76% or 1.85 to hit $51.13 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 5.77% or 3.38 to trade at $62.05 a barrel.
CAD/USD was up 0.49% to 0.8046, while CAD/EUR rose 0.31% to 0.7081.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.31% at 94.23.