Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.63%

Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare , Energy and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite declined 0.63%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Air Canada (TSX: AC ), which rose 3.37% or 0.83 points to trade at 25.46 at the close. Converge Technology Solutions Corp (TSX: CTS ) added 2.31% or 0.230 points to end at 10.200 and Canadian Tire Corp Ltd (TSX: CTCa ) was up 2.06% or 3.88 points to 192.56 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Superior Plus Corp (TSX: SPB ), which lost 13.96% or 1.82 points to trade at 11.22 in late trade. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc . (TSX: RBA ) declined 10.37% or 7.56 points to end at 65.32 and Hut 8 Mining Corp (TSX: HUT ) shed 6.65% or 0.540 points to 7.580.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 660 to 329 and 122 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 7.41% to 25.37.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.25% or 4.75 to $1897.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.32% or 0.29 to hit $91.47 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.70% or 0.65 to trade at $93.62 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.32% to 0.7843, while CAD/EUR fell 0.05% to 0.6922.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 96.055.