Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.26%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.26%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were MEG Energy Corp (TO: MEG ), which rose 5.49% or 0.32 points to trade at 6.15 at the close. TransAlta Corp (TO: TA ) added 4.85% or 0.26 points to end at 5.62 and Asanko Gold Inc (TO: AKG ) was up 3.50% or 0.150 points to 4.440 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Guyana Goldfields Inc . (TO: GUY ), which lost 4.71% or 0.280 points to trade at 5.670 in late trade. Kinross Gold Corporation (TO: K ) declined 4.38% or 0.21 points to end at 4.58 and Detour Gold Corporation (TO: DGC ) shed 4.22% or 0.74 points to 16.79.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 599 to 557 and 119 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 3.18% to 15.20.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.70% or 8.55 to $1208.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.29% or 0.13 to hit $45.55 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.62% or 0.29 to trade at $46.78 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7399, while CAD/EUR rose 0.37% to 0.6986.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.40% at 101.40.