OTTAWA: Canada stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Consumer Staples and Telecoms sectors led shares higher. At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.23%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Silver Wheaton Corp. (TO:SLW), which rose 7.53% or 2.00 points to trade at 28.56 at the close. Meanwhile, Teck Resources Ltd B (TO:TECKb) added 4.29% or 1.17 points to end at 28.47 and Amaya Inc (TO:AYA) was up 3.23% or 0.66 points to 21.09 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (TO:PLI), which fell 6.36% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.210 at the close. Alacer Gold Corp (TO:ASR) declined 6.08% or 0.180 points to end at 2.780 and NexGen Energy Ltd. (TO:NXE) was down 4.28% or 0.140 points to 3.130.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 760 to 383 and 141 ended unchanged. The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was up 4.28% to 13.17. Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.12% or 1.45 to $1247.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.19% or 0.09 to hit $48.15 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.23 to trade at $50.73 a barrel. CAD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7490, while CAD/EUR rose 0.29% to 0.6946. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 99.47.
