Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.32%

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare , Energy and Clean Technology sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.32%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (TO: VRX ), which rose 18.53% or 7.00 points to trade at 44.77 at the close. Surge Energy Inc . (TO: SGY ) added 13.40% or 0.260 points to end at 2.200 and Enerplus Corporation (TO: ERF ) was up 9.34% or 0.44 points to 5.15 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Metro Inc . (TO: MRU ), which lost 4.15% or 1.82 points to trade at 42.08 in late trade. B2Gold Corp (TO: BTO ) declined 3.26% or 0.070 points to end at 2.080 and Cogeco Communications Inc (TO: CCA ) shed 3.24% or 2.23 points to 66.62.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 709 to 531 and 331 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 3.36% to 18.39.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.37% or 4.50 to $1225.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 5.21% or 1.87 to hit $37.76 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 5.02% or 1.90 to trade at $39.77 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.29% to 0.7633, while CAD/EUR rose 0.18% to 0.6698.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 94.51.