Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.67%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.67% to hit a new 6-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were TransAlta Corp (TO: TA ), which rose 7.13% or 0.59 points to trade at 8.86 at the close. Aphria Inc (TO: APHA ) added 6.40% or 0.820 points to end at 13.640 and Precision Drilling Corporation (TO: PD ) was up 5.98% or 0.18 points to 3.19 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Fortuna Silver Mines Inc (TO: FVI ), which lost 4.43% or 0.23 points to trade at 4.96 in late trade. North West Company Inc (TO: NWC ) declined 4.29% or 1.29 points to end at 28.77 and Knight Therapeutics Inc (TO: GUD ) shed 4.24% or 0.34 points to 7.67.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 644 to 453 and 108 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 20.00% to 12.18.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.05% or 0.65 to $1303.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.75% or 0.44 to hit $59.26 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.39% or 0.26 to trade at $67.42 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7498, while CAD/EUR fell 0.05% to 0.6611.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 95.945.