Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 3.33%

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare , Consumer Discretionary and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 3.33%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Hexo Corp (TSX: HEXO ), which rose 46.15% or 0.240 points to trade at 0.760 at the close. Primo Water Corp (TSX: PRMW ) added 25.10% or 2.56 points to end at 12.76 and Interfor Corp (TSX: IFP ) was up 24.01% or 1.21 points to 6.25 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Killam Properties Inc (TSX: KMP_u ), which lost 8.19% or 1.43 points to trade at 16.04 in late trade. Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (TSX: CAR_u ) declined 7.04% or 3.25 points to end at 42.92 and Alaris Royalty Corp . (TSX: AD ) shed 6.94% or 0.55 points to 7.38.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 792 to 322 and 83 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 unchanged 0% to 11.27.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.27% or 3.95 to $1473.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 24.20% or 5.04 to hit $25.87 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 13.55% or 3.37 to trade at $28.25 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.6904, while CAD/EUR rose 2.34% to 0.6459.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 1.94% at 103.515.