Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Staples and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (TO:PBH), which rose 5.73% or 4.20 points to trade at 77.50 at the close. Empire Company Ltd (TO:EMPa) added 4.50% or 0.78 points to end at 18.10 and First Quantum Minerals Ltd . (TO:FM) was up 3.84% or 0.54 points to 14.61 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hudson's Bay Company (TO:HBC), which lost 3.96% or 0.46 points to trade at 11.15 in late trade. Bonavista Energy Corp (TO:BNP) declined 3.40% or 0.120 points to end at 3.410 and Torex Gold Resources Inc (TO:TXG) shed 3.38% or 0.930 points to 26.590.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 578 to 560 and 149 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 13.56% to 13.15.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 2.14% or 25.65 to $1226.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.08% or 0.04 to hit $48.82 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.05 to trade at $51.76 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7505, while CAD/EUR fell 0.47% to 0.6970.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 100.09.