Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.34%

Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the IT , Materials and Clean Technology sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite lost 0.34% to hit a new 6-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were NexGen Energy Ltd. (TO: NXE ), which rose 5.23% or 0.150 points to trade at 3.020 at the close. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc . (TO: RBA ) added 2.87% or 1.070 points to end at 38.330 and Gran Tierra Energy Inc . (TO: GTE ) was up 2.78% or 0.080 points to 2.960 in late trade.

Biggest losers included First Majestic Silver Corp. (TO: FR ), which lost 6.13% or 0.66 points to trade at 10.10 in late trade. Fortuna Silver Mines Inc (TO: FVI ) declined 4.88% or 0.31 points to end at 6.04 and Guyana Goldfields Inc . (TO: GUY ) shed 4.61% or 0.280 points to 5.800.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 559 to 512 and 145 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 5.04% to 14.18.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.41% or 5.03 to $1224.23 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $47.08 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $49.67 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.55% to 0.7730, while CAD/EUR rose 0.69% to 0.6812.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 95.99.