Investing.com – Canada equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, IT and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite declined 0.23% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Stelco Holdings Inc (TSX:STLC), which rose 7.90% or 2.62 points to trade at 35.80 at the close. Methanex Corporation (TSX:MX) added 6.29% or 3.51 points to end at 59.28 and Celestica Inc. (TSX:CLS) was up 5.50% or 0.76 points to 14.66 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hut 8 Mining Corp (TSX:HUT), which lost 10.38% or 0.760 points to trade at 6.560 in late trade. Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX:EDR) declined 7.02% or 0.340 points to end at 4.500 and SilverCrest Metals Inc (TSX:SIL) shed 6.48% or 0.65 points to 9.38.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 647 to 396 and 98 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 8.55% to 27.92 a new 5-year high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 2.04% or 37.35 to $1792.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.04% or 0.91 to hit $86.44 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.77% or 0.68 to trade at $88.06 a barrel.
CAD/USD was down 0.57% to 0.7847, while CAD/EUR rose 0.29% to 0.7042.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.88% at 97.245.