Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.50%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite declined 0.50%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Dollarama Inc (TO: DOL ), which rose 11.17% or 11.14 points to trade at 110.88 at the close. BRP Inc. (TO: DOO ) added 3.92% or 1.20 points to end at 31.85 and Hudson's Bay Company (TO: HBC ) was up 3.90% or 0.40 points to 10.65 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Cenovus Energy Inc (TO: CVE ), which lost 13.75% or 2.40 points to trade at 15.05 in late trade. Raging River Exploration Inc. (TO: RRX ) declined 4.87% or 0.47 points to end at 9.18 and Torex Gold Resources Inc (TO: TXG ) shed 4.38% or 1.160 points to 25.330.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 578 to 556 and 139 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 11.16% to 12.95.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.87% or 10.90 to $1242.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.74% or 0.86 to hit $50.37 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.05% or 0.55 to trade at $53.09 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7497, while CAD/EUR rose 0.70% to 0.7018.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.60% at 100.38.