Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.47%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite declined 0.47%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were AltaGas Ltd (TO: ALA ), which rose 7.48% or 1.23 points to trade at 17.68 at the close. Encana Corporation (TO: ECA ) added 6.74% or 0.61 points to end at 9.66 and Bombardier Inc (TO: BBDb ) was up 6.46% or 0.170 points to 2.800 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Transcontinental Inc (TO: TCLa ), which lost 12.15% or 2.62 points to trade at 18.95 in late trade. Cascades Inc . (TO: CAS ) declined 9.55% or 0.93 points to end at 8.81 and Seven Generations Energy Ltd (TO: VII ) shed 9.07% or 0.96 points to 9.62.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 602 to 505 and 105 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 2.28% to 13.46.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.50% or 6.55 to $1314.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.58% or 0.33 to hit $57.27 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $66.41 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7592, while CAD/EUR fell 0.01% to 0.6676.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 96.120.