Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Real Estate and REITs sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were MDA Ltd (TSX:MDA), which rose 13.48% or 1.62 points to trade at 13.64 at the close. BlackBerry Ltd (TSX:BB) added 10.53% or 0.32 points to end at 3.36 and NovaGold Resources Inc (TSX:NG) was up 6.00% or 0.28 points to 4.95 in late trade.
Biggest losers included International Petroleum Corp (TSX:IPCO), which lost 3.41% or 0.63 points to trade at 17.86 in late trade. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX:IVN) declined 2.46% or 0.44 points to end at 17.45 and Lundin Mining Corporation (TSX:LUN) shed 1.91% or 0.29 points to 14.91.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 647 to 279 and 99 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 17.13% to 6.92 a new 3-year low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.02% or 23.65 to $2,336.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.21% or 0.98 to hit $81.88 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.02% or 0.86 to trade at $85.33 a barrel.
CAD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.73, while CAD/EUR unchanged 0.16% to 0.68.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 105.60.