Canada shares lower at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite down 0.94%

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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite lost 0.94% to hit a new 1-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Empire Company Ltd (TO: EMPa ), which rose 4.21% or 0.86 points to trade at 21.29 at the close. Constellation Software Inc . (TO: CSU ) added 3.98% or 26.29 points to end at 686.39 and Western Forest Products Inc (TO: WEF ) was up 3.79% or 0.080 points to 2.190 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Home Capital Group Inc . (TO: HCG ), which lost 12.13% or 0.83 points to trade at 6.01 in late trade. Uni-Select Inc. (TO: UNS ) declined 11.39% or 4.12 points to end at 32.04 and Asanko Gold Inc (TO: AKG ) shed 8.60% or 0.270 points to 2.870.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 868 to 308 and 109 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 3.69% to 12.91.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.51% or 18.81 to $1229.69 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 5.02% or 2.40 to hit $45.42 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 4.82% or 2.45 to trade at $48.34 a barrel.

CAD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7265, while CAD/EUR fell 1.09% to 0.6618.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.67% at 98.59.