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

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.03%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were MEG Energy Corp (TSX: MEG ), which rose 12.28% or 0.56 points to trade at 5.12 at the close. Dollarama Inc (TSX: DOL ) added 11.32% or 4.78 points to end at 46.99 and Alacer Gold Corp (TSX: ASR ) was up 10.22% or 0.380 points to 4.100 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Hexo Corp (TSX: HEXO ), which lost 8.44% or 0.7200 points to trade at 7.8100 in late trade. BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE ) declined 4.22% or 2.64 points to end at 59.88 and CannTrust Holdings Inc (TSX: TRST ) shed 4.16% or 0.2900 points to 6.6800.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 543 to 508 and 130 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 0.08% to 12.06.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.70% or 9.30 to $1346.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 2.09% or 1.07 to hit $52.21 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.03 to trade at $61.34 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7502, while CAD/EUR fell 0.05% to 0.6649.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 96.982.