Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.32%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.32%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Aurora Cannabis Inc (TO: ACB ), which rose 7.47% or 0.89 points to trade at 12.81 at the close. Fortuna Silver Mines Inc (TO: FVI ) added 7.45% or 0.36 points to end at 5.19 and Knight Therapeutics Inc (TO: GUD ) was up 6.09% or 0.46 points to 8.01 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Westshore Terminals Investment Corp (TO: WTE ), which lost 11.98% or 2.61 points to trade at 19.18 in late trade. Precision Drilling Corporation (TO: PD ) declined 5.05% or 0.16 points to end at 3.01 and Intertape Polymer Group Inc . (TO: ITP ) shed 4.42% or 0.84 points to 18.17.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 539 to 523 and 121 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 21.50% to 10.15 a new 52-week low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.51% or 6.65 to $1301.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.34% or 0.20 to hit $58.41 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.20 to trade at $67.03 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7491, while CAD/EUR fell 0.24% to 0.6616.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 96.575.