Canada shares higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.50%

Investing.com – Canada equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Clean Technology , IT and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.50%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Guyana Goldfields Inc . (TO: GUY ), which rose 5.34% or 0.360 points to trade at 7.100 at the close. Hudson's Bay Company (TO: HBC ) added 3.90% or 0.39 points to end at 10.39 and Sandstorm Gold Ltd . (TO: SSL ) was up 3.85% or 0.220 points to 5.940 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Gildan Activewear Inc. (TO: GIL ), which lost 5.75% or 1.90 points to trade at 31.17 in late trade. Teck Resources Ltd B (TO: TECKb ) declined 4.07% or 1.34 points to end at 31.56 and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (TO: TRQ ) shed 3.93% or 0.190 points to 4.640.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 764 to 386 and 134 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 13.60% to 11.56.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.14% or 1.75 to $1221.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.54% or 0.29 to hit $53.83 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.42% or 0.24 to trade at $56.80 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7675, while CAD/EUR fell 0.24% to 0.7119.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 99.72.