Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, IT and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.41% to hit a new 6-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Bankers Petroleum Ltd. (TO:BNK), which rose 7.21% or 0.220 points to trade at 3.270 at the close. Capstone Mining Corp. (TO:CS) added 7.09% or 0.090 points to end at 1.360 and Concordia Healthcare (TO:CXR) was up 6.45% or 6.23 points to 102.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Major Drilling Group International (TO:MDI), which lost 6.61% or 0.48 points to trade at 6.78 in late trade. Aimia Inc. (TO:AIM) declined 4.64% or 0.64 points to end at 13.16 and Canadian Energy Services&Technology (TO:CEU) shed 4.46% or 0.27 points to 5.78.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 822 to 637 and 167 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 3.63% to 14.06 a new 3-month .
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 1.21% or 14.40 to $1208.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.80% or 0.92 to hit $51.70 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.50% or 1.42 to trade at $57.98 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7947, while CAD/EUR rose 0.60% to 0.7500.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.42% at 99.66.