Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.40%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.40%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Canadian Natural Resources Limited (TO: CNQ ), which rose 5.30% or 2.04 points to trade at 40.50 at the close. Parex Resources Inc (TO: PXT ) added 3.43% or 0.550 points to end at 16.600 and Finning International Inc . (TO: FTT ) was up 2.53% or 0.65 points to 26.31 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Semafo Inc . (TO: SMF ), which lost 10.64% or 0.45 points to trade at 3.78 in late trade. First Majestic Silver Corp. (TO: FR ) declined 8.97% or 1.09 points to end at 11.06 and Silver Standard Resources Inc . (TO: SSO ) shed 8.80% or 1.32 points to 13.68.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 796 to 418 and 112 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 1.46% to 12.82.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.20% or 14.95 to $1235.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 2.23% or 1.20 to hit $52.63 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 2.27% or 1.28 to trade at $55.08 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.51% to 0.7465, while CAD/EUR fell 0.14% to 0.7105.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.42% at 102.17.