Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.51%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite lost 0.51%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were BRP Inc. (TO: DOO ), which rose 7.42% or 1.48 points to trade at 21.43 at the close. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (TO: VRX ) added 5.68% or 1.73 points to end at 32.19 and Novagold Resources Inc . (TO: NG ) was up 4.61% or 0.35 points to 7.94 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Performance Sports Group Ltd (TO: PSG ), which lost 8.84% or 0.39 points to trade at 4.02 in late trade. First Quantum Minerals Ltd . (TO: FM ) declined 7.74% or 0.77 points to end at 9.18 and Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (TO: PWT ) shed 5.51% or 0.070 points to 1.200.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 590 to 578 and 143 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 4.99% to 13.89.

In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.76% or 9.65 to $1271.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.50% or 0.77 to hit $50.46 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.20% or 0.63 to trade at $51.88 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.20% to 0.7863, while CAD/EUR rose 0.49% to 0.6949.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.51% at 94.07.