Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 1.68%

Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare , Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite lost 1.68%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Alamos Gold Inc (TSX: AGI ), which rose 3.74% or 0.43 points to trade at 11.93 at the close. Dundee Precious Metals Inc (TSX: DPM ) added 3.53% or 0.30 points to end at 8.80 and Teranga Gold Corp (TSX: TGZ ) was up 3.53% or 0.41 points to 12.01 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Corus Entertainment Inc (TSX: CJRb ), which lost 16.57% or 0.58 points to trade at 2.92 in late trade. Vermilion Energy Inc . (TSX: VET ) declined 7.23% or 0.45 points to end at 5.77 and Cineplex Inc . (TSX: CGX ) shed 6.60% or 0.71 points to 10.05.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 765 to 264 and 106 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 August delivery was up 0.77% or 13.55 to $1784.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.37% or 0.53 to hit $38.19 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.88% or 0.36 to trade at $40.69 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.23% to 0.7315, while CAD/EUR fell 0.28% to 0.6518.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.420.