Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 1.36%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 1.36% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Canopy Growth Corp (TO: WEED ), which rose 13.24% or 5.200 points to trade at 44.470 at the close. New Gold Inc (TO: NGD ) added 12.59% or 0.180 points to end at 1.610 and Precision Drilling Corporation (TO: PD ) was up 11.28% or 0.30 points to 2.96 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Pretium Resources Inc. (TO: PVG ), which lost 11.10% or 1.29 points to trade at 10.33 in late trade. Eldorado Gold Corp (TO: ELD ) declined 2.51% or 0.11 points to end at 4.27 and Onex Corp (TO: ONEX ) shed 2.24% or 1.69 points to 73.71.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 857 to 278 and 90 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 9.01% to 18.99.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.65% or 8.35 to $1294.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 4.78% or 2.38 to hit $52.16 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 4.36% or 2.56 to trade at $61.28 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.48% to 0.7568, while CAD/EUR fell 0.43% to 0.6553.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.78% at 94.730.