Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.60%

Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Energy , Telecoms and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.60%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Asanko Gold Inc (TO: AKG ), which rose 8.17% or 0.170 points to trade at 2.250 at the close. Canopy Growth Corp (TO: WEED ) added 4.99% or 0.340 points to end at 7.160 and Cott Corporation (TO: BCB ) was up 4.84% or 0.91 points to 19.71 in late trade.

Biggest losers included MEG Energy Corp (TO: MEG ), which lost 9.36% or 0.47 points to trade at 4.55 in late trade. Baytex Energy Corp (TO: BTE ) declined 8.72% or 0.34 points to end at 3.56 and Encana Corporation (TO: ECA ) shed 7.85% or 1.04 points to 12.21.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 692 to 434 and 128 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 3.79% to 13.16.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.59% or 7.72 to $1289.78 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 5.04% or 2.43 to hit $45.76 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.97% or 1.99 to trade at $48.13 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.43% to 0.7400, while CAD/EUR fell 0.30% to 0.6571.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 96.65.