OTTAWA: Canada stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Industrials and Financials sectors led shares lower. At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite lost 0.20%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were HudBay Minerals Inc. (TO:HBM), which rose 6.31% or 0.59 points to trade at 9.94 at the close. Meanwhile, Baytex Energy Corp (TO:BTE) added 5.45% or 0.18 points to end at 3.48 and Yamana Gold Inc (TO:YRI) was up 5.16% or 0.16 points to 3.26 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Celestica Inc. (TO:CLS), which fell 5.66% or 0.95 points to trade at 15.84 at the close. Western Forest Products Inc (TO:WEF) declined 4.26% or 0.110 points to end at 2.470 and Encana Corporation (TO:ECA) was down 3.78% or 0.49 points to 12.47.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 630 to 475 and 132 ended unchanged. The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was down 27.14% to 10.04. Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.67% or 8.43 to $1260.53 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 1.69% or 0.81 to hit $48.70 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.43% or 0.72 to trade at $50.92 a barrel. CAD/USD was up 0.51% to 0.8036, while CAD/EUR fell 0.17% to 0.6852. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.61% at 93.35.