Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.03% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.03% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Descartes Systems Group Inc (TSX:DSG), which rose 6.35% or 4.47 points to trade at 74.94 at the close. Canaccord Genuity Group Inc (TSX:CF) added 5.78% or 0.77 points to end at 14.10 and Tilray Inc (TSX:TLRY) was up 4.69% or 1.07 points to 23.89 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Real Matters Inc (TSX:REAL), which lost 7.02% or 1.19 points to trade at 15.75 in late trade. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (TSX:AUP) declined 6.17% or 1.03 points to end at 15.67 and New Gold Inc (TSX:NGD) shed 5.99% or 0.160 points to 2.510.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 555 to 509 and 101 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 down 1.82% or 34.85 to $1875.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $68.81 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $71.29 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.56% to 0.8262, while CAD/EUR rose 0.12% to 0.6812.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.64% at 90.480.