Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Materials and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Home Capital Group Inc . (TO:HCG), which rose 27.18% or 4.06 points to trade at 19.00 at the close. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (TO:VRX) added 12.57% or 2.29 points to end at 20.51 and Genworth MI Canada Inc . (TO:MIC) was up 11.54% or 3.84 points to 37.11 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Klondex Mines Ltd. (TO:KDX), which lost 7.30% or 0.360 points to trade at 4.570 in late trade. Bombardier Inc (TO:BBDb) declined 3.63% or 0.090 points to end at 2.390 and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc . (TO:RBA) shed 3.29% or 1.250 points to 36.800.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 667 to 449 and 132 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 17.81% to 13.03.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.46% or 5.76 to $1251.56 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.47% or 0.20 to hit $42.73 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.89% or 0.40 to trade at $45.22 a barrel.
CAD/USD was up 0.77% to 0.7557, while CAD/EUR rose 0.94% to 0.6777.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.25.