Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 1.51% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Materials, Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 1.51%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were First Majestic Silver Corp. (TSX:FR), which rose 19.88% or 3.53 points to trade at 21.29 at the close. Fortuna Silver Mines Inc (TSX:FVI) added 12.18% or 1.04 points to end at 9.58 and Trillium Therapeutics Inc (TSX:TRIL) was up 8.72% or 1.33 points to 16.58 in late trade.

Biggest losers included BlackBerry Ltd (TSX:BB), which lost 38.96% or 12.27 points to trade at 19.22 in late trade. Real Matters Inc (TSX:REAL) declined 7.67% or 1.44 points to end at 17.34 and Canada Goose Holdings Inc (TSX:GOOS) shed 5.29% or 2.42 points to 43.31.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 671 to 344 and 112 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 April delivery was down 0.19% or 3.50 to $1845.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.78% or 0.41 to hit $52.44 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.59% or 0.33 to trade at $55.20 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.08% to 0.7817, while CAD/EUR fell 0.14% to 0.6440.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 90.407.