Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.22%

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities , Real Estate and REITs sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.22%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Intertain Group (TO: IT ), which rose 16.41% or 1.40 points to trade at 9.93 at the close. B2Gold Corp (TO: BTO ) added 5.47% or 0.150 points to end at 2.890 and Intertape Polymer Group Inc . (TO: ITP ) was up 5.40% or 1.27 points to 24.81 in late trade.

Biggest losers included ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (TO: PLI ), which lost 20.81% or 0.410 points to trade at 1.560 in late trade. Teck Resources Ltd B (TO: TECKb ) declined 5.71% or 1.65 points to end at 27.26 and Asanko Gold Inc (TO: AKG ) shed 5.25% or 0.210 points to 3.790.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 698 to 496 and 131 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 45.68% to 6.67.

In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.50% or 5.65 to $1135.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 2.14% or 1.09 to hit $51.99 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 2.39% or 1.29 to trade at $55.31 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.01% to 0.7496, while CAD/EUR fell 0.32% to 0.7176.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.28% at 102.86.