Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 2.31%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 2.31% to hit a new 6-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Cineplex Inc . (TSX: CGX ), which rose 6.16% or 1.84 points to trade at 31.70 at the close. Air Canada (TSX: AC ) added 3.11% or 1.00 points to end at 33.16 and Alamos Gold Inc (TSX: AGI ) was up 2.60% or 0.22 points to 8.68 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Vermilion Energy Inc . (TSX: VET ), which lost 18.49% or 2.35 points to trade at 10.36 in late trade. Alaris Royalty Corp . (TSX: AD ) declined 16.12% or 2.77 points to end at 14.41 and Enerplus Corporation (TSX: ERF ) shed 13.26% or 0.72 points to 4.71.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 970 to 155 and 67 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 up 0.39% or 6.50 to $1674.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 9.56% or 4.39 to hit $41.51 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 9.20% or 4.60 to trade at $45.39 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.11% to 0.7449, while CAD/EUR fell 0.70% to 0.6586.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.84% at 95.977.