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

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.05%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Birchcliff Energy Ltd . (TO: BIR ), which rose 9.55% or 0.49 points to trade at 5.62 at the close. Bonavista Energy Corp (TO: BNP ) added 8.10% or 0.23 points to end at 3.07 and Quebecor Inc (TO: QBRb ) was up 6.21% or 2.11 points to 36.11 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (TO: PBH ), which lost 8.01% or 4.78 points to trade at 54.90 in late trade. ShawCor Ltd . (TO: SCL ) declined 7.92% or 2.50 points to end at 29.07 and Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund (TO: CHE_u ) shed 6.08% or 1.11 points to 17.15.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 410 to 397 and 117 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 1.99% to 16.24.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.57% or 7.30 to $1268.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.48% or 0.22 to hit $46.45 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.74% or 0.35 to trade at $47.95 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.12% to 0.7789, while CAD/EUR rose 0.54% to 0.6847.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.35% at 94.13.