Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 2.70%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 2.70% to hit a new 6-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were SNC-Lavalin Group Inc . (TSX: SNC ), which rose 10.95% or 3.08 points to trade at 31.20 at the close. Crescent Point Energy Corp . (TSX: CPG ) added 5.76% or 0.20 points to end at 3.67 and Baytex Energy Corp (TSX: BTE ) was up 5.08% or 0.060 points to 1.240 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Seabridge Gold Inc . (TSX: SEA ), which lost 19.88% or 3.28 points to trade at 13.22 in late trade. Bombardier Inc (TSX: BBDb ) declined 19.67% or 0.240 points to end at 0.980 and OceanaGold Corporation (TSX: OGC ) shed 15.88% or 0.370 points to 1.960.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 977 to 178 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 down 3.67% or 60.25 to $1582.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 4.16% or 1.96 to hit $45.13 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 3.36% or 1.74 to trade at $49.99 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.17% to 0.7454, while CAD/EUR fell 0.41% to 0.6760.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.38% at 98.085.