Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.39%

Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Materials , Healthcare and REITs sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.39%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Aurora Cannabis Inc (TO: ACB ), which rose 12.03% or 1.28 points to trade at 11.92 at the close. Birchcliff Energy Ltd . (TO: BIR ) added 4.84% or 0.17 points to end at 3.68 and NexGen Energy Ltd. (TO: NXE ) was up 3.18% or 0.070 points to 2.270 in late trade.

Biggest losers included North West Company Inc (TO: NWC ), which lost 5.54% or 1.78 points to trade at 30.34 in late trade. IAMGold Corporation (TO: IMG ) declined 5.11% or 0.250 points to end at 4.640 and Alamos Gold Inc (TO: AGI ) shed 5.08% or 0.36 points to 6.73.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 612 to 452 and 118 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 up 0.23% to 12.93.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.03% or 13.55 to $1295.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.41% or 0.24 to hit $58.50 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.59% or 0.40 to trade at $67.15 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7501, while CAD/EUR rose 0.13% to 0.6641.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 96.765.