Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.05%

Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Staples , Materials and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite lost 0.05% to hit a new 3-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Aphria Inc (TO: APH ), which rose 13.01% or 2.250 points to trade at 19.550 at the close. Canopy Growth Corp (TO: WEED ) added 7.33% or 4.200 points to end at 61.480 and Stars Group Inc (TO: TSGI ) was up 7.18% or 2.19 points to 32.69 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Alacer Gold Corp (TO: ASR ), which lost 4.46% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.140 in late trade. Interfor Corp (TO: IFP ) declined 4.17% or 0.96 points to end at 22.04 and Guyana Goldfields Inc . (TO: GUY ) shed 4.14% or 0.130 points to 3.010.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 569 to 491 and 142 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 8.13% to 13.33.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.75% or 9.10 to $1199.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.51% or 0.35 to hit $68.94 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.12% or 0.09 to trade at $78.09 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7671, while CAD/EUR rose 0.26% to 0.6598.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.43% at 94.94.