Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Staples and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (TO:PWT), which rose 10.61% or 0.19 points to trade at 1.98 at the close. Athabasca Oil Corporation (TO:ATH) added 8.84% or 0.16 points to end at 1.97 and Surge Energy Inc. (TO:SGY) was up 8.65% or 0.230 points to 2.890 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp (TO:LIF), which lost 4.89% or 0.77 points to trade at 14.97 in late trade. North West Company Inc. (TO:NWC) declined 2.55% or 0.64 points to end at 24.50 and Canexus Corporation (TO:CUS) shed 2.20% or 0.04 points to 1.55.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 814 to 618 and 178 ended unchanged on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of options, was down 1.23% to 16.86.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 2.18% or 25.00 to $1173.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May rose 4.72% or 2.13 to hit $47.33 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract rose 5.97% or 3.19 to trade at $56.70 a barrel.
CAD/USD was up 2.11% to 0.7985, while CAD/EUR fell 0.89% to 0.7314.
The US Dollar Index was down 2.65% at 97.39.