Canada stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.20%

Investing.com – Canada stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Materials, Consumer Discretionary and Clean Technology sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.20% to hit a new 6-months high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Pretium Resources Inc. (TO:PVG), which rose 8.84% or 0.96 points to trade at 11.82 at the close. Meanwhile, Fortuna Silver Mines Inc (TO:FVI) added 7.01% or 0.30 points to end at 4.58 and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (TO:TRQ) was up 6.31% or 0.140 points to 2.360 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Richelieu Hardware Ltd. (TO:RCH), which fell 6.11% or 1.45 points to trade at 22.29 at the close. Shopify Inc (TO:SHOP) declined 4.91% or 13.450 points to end at 260.250 and Enghouse Systems Ltd (TO:ENGH) was down 3.97% or 1.34 points to 32.40.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 636 to 400 and 139 ended unchanged.

The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was down 2.51% to 12.45.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.09% or 1.15 to $1296.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.43% or 0.27 to hit $62.19 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $69.28 a barrel.

CAD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7486, while CAD/EUR fell 0.01% to 0.6669.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 96.925.