Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.31%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.31%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were TransCanada Corporation (TO: TRP ), which rose 5.43% or 3.06 points to trade at 59.43 at the close. Guyana Goldfields Inc . (TO: GUY ) added 4.75% or 0.190 points to end at 4.190 and BlackBerry Ltd (TO: BB ) was up 4.33% or 0.57 points to 13.73 in late trade.

Biggest losers included First Quantum Minerals Ltd . (TO: FM ), which lost 7.48% or 1.43 points to trade at 17.69 in late trade. Parex Resources Inc (TO: PXT ) declined 5.47% or 1.340 points to end at 23.170 and Aphria Inc (TO: APH ) shed 4.62% or 0.520 points to 10.730.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 579 to 499 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 12.51% to 11.96.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.41% or 5.00 to $1222.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.46% or 0.31 to hit $68.06 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.40% or 0.29 to trade at $72.61 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.71% to 0.7544, while CAD/EUR fell 0.69% to 0.6479.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 94.95.