Canada's main stock market in Toronto moved up on Wednesday as gains in financials and materials groups outweighed a steep decline in health care stocks.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite rose 65.26 points, or 0.42 percent, to finish the session at 15,491.54 points. Half of the ten sub-sectors ended the day ahead.

Financials and Materials had the biggest weight on the index, both rising 0.73 percent.

Financials was fueled by the country's largest insurance and bank. Toronto-based Manulife Financial, the largest insurance firm in Canada, saw shares rise 1.34 percent to 24.88 Canadian dollars (18.88 U.S. dollars). Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest bank by market cap, finished 0.99 percent higher at 93.89 Canadian dollars (71.26 U.S. dollars) per share.

The TSX Materials group, which feature producers of gold, precious metals, and raw materials, was higher after spot price of gold closed in on 1,200 U.S. dollars an ounce. The price of bullion finished at 1,191.10 dollars, 0.32 percent higher than Tuesday.

Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold Corporation was one of the most influential stocks on the day, with more than 10.5 million shares exchanged. The stock ultimately finished at 4.57 Canadian dollars (3.47 U.S. dollars), a 2.24 percent increase.

Industrials group rose 0.72 percent after Montreal-based Bombardier was part of a consortium that won a 1.22 billion U.S. dollar contract to provide commuter rails for Paris. Bombardier has 30 percent stake in this partnership, while French-based Alstom owns the remaining 70 percent. As a result of the news, shares of Bombardier surged 4.86 percent to 2.59 Canadian dollars (1.97 U.S. dollars).

Utilities and Information Technology groups also finished higher, gaining 0.24 percent and 0.20 percent, respectively.

The TSX Health Care plunged 3.09 percent after United States President-elect Donald Trump suggested that pharmaceutical firms are 'getting away with murder'in his first press conference since winning the election. Trump believes that the current drug procurement process is inefficient and wants to create new bidding procedures.

As a result, shares of Quebec-based drugmakers Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. sunk 6.92 percent and 4.76 percent, respectively. This comes one day after Valeant announced the sale of two of their assets for a combined 2.12 billion U.S. dollars to repay their outstanding debt of 30 billion U.S. dollars.

The four other groups to lose ground on the day experienced modest declines. Consumer Staples and Energy groups fell 0.25 percent and 0.06 percent, respectively. While Consumer Discretionary and Telecommunications groups inched down with respective drops of 0.02 percent and 0.01 percent.

Crude oil bounced back from Tuesday's six-week low to help the TSX Energy Group finished with a small loss. Price of Brent delivered in March rose 2.85 percent to 55.19 U.S. dollars a barrel. Price of Calgary-based Encana Corporation moved up 1.65 percent to 17.20 Canadian dollars (13.05 U.S. dollars) a share.

The Consumer Discretionary group, which is comprised of producers of non-essentials goods such as automobiles, apparel and entertainment, saw a small dip after analysts downgraded Hudson' s Bay Company a day after the firm reported poor sales during the 2016 Holiday season. After retreating 12.86 percent on Tuesday, shares of Canada' s oldest company fell to 9.40 Canadian dollars (7.13 U.S. dollars), a 7.48 percent dip.

Also within the group is Toronto-based media firm Corus Entertainment Inc., which saw shares slip 3.01 percent to 12.87 Canadian dollars (9.77 U.S. dollars) after reporting below-expectation first quarter results.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.3 cents to finish the session at 0.7560 U.S. dollars.