Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.13%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.13%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Baytex Energy Corp (TO: BTE ), which rose 6.84% or 0.16 points to trade at 2.50 at the close. Cenovus Energy Inc (TO: CVE ) added 6.09% or 0.56 points to end at 9.75 and Lundin Mining Corporation (TO: LUN ) was up 5.75% or 0.310 points to 5.700 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Aphria Inc (TO: APHA ), which lost 6.56% or 0.740 points to trade at 10.540 in late trade. Dorel Industries Inc (TO: DIIb ) declined 6.12% or 1.22 points to end at 18.72 and Precision Drilling Corporation (TO: PD ) shed 5.81% or 0.19 points to 3.08.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 574 to 553 and 87 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 1.53% to 17.23.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.06% or 0.70 to $1229.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 2.17% or 1.09 to hit $51.38 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.30% or 0.77 to trade at $59.86 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.08% to 0.7526, while CAD/EUR fell 0.26% to 0.6609.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 96.713.