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

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite added 0.48% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Badger Infrastructure Solutions Ltd (TSX: BDGI ), which rose 8.83% or 3.41 points to trade at 42.02 at the close. Meanwhile, Aecon Group Inc . (TSX: ARE ) added 7.28% or 1.84 points to end at 27.12 and Birchcliff Energy Ltd . (TSX: BIR ) was up 4.47% or 0.26 points to 6.08 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Ngex Minerals Ltd (TSX: NGEX ), which fell 4.85% or 0.72 points to trade at 14.14 at the close. Storagevault Canada Inc (TSX: SVI ) declined 3.59% or 0.14 points to end at 3.76 and Athabasca Oil Corp (TSX: ATH ) was down 3.53% or 0.19 points to 5.20.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 521 to 382 and 108 ended unchanged.

Shares in Storagevault Canada Inc (TSX: SVI ) fell to 3-years lows; down 3.59% or 0.14 to 3.76.

The S&P/TSX 60 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was down 5.97% to 13.38.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.35% or 9.76 to $2,761.14 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.62% or 1.22 to hit $74.22 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.48% or 1.17 to trade at $77.83 a barrel.

CAD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.70, while CAD/EUR unchanged 0.04% to 0.67.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 107.94.