Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.45%

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT , Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.45% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were BlackBerry Ltd (TSX: BB ), which rose 5.64% or 0.53 points to trade at 9.93 at the close. OceanaGold Corporation (TSX: OGC ) added 4.85% or 0.150 points to end at 3.240 and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc . (TSX: SNC ) was up 4.52% or 0.81 points to 18.73 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Gran Tierra Energy Inc (TSX: GTE ), which lost 2.45% or 0.050 points to trade at 1.990 in late trade. Pason Systems Inc . (TSX: PSI ) declined 2.38% or 0.40 points to end at 16.42 and Enerflex Ltd . (TSX: EFX ) shed 2.24% or 0.30 points to 13.07.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 646 to 416 and 128 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 4.89% to 11.87 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.40% or 5.95 to $1505.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 2.53% or 1.45 to hit $55.95 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.06 to trade at $61.02 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7581, while CAD/EUR rose 0.03% to 0.6885.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.31% at 98.612.