Canada's benchmark equity index opened well above the 12,000 mark as China unleashed the yuan but pared gains as gold prices declined from record high. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed 8.49 points, or 0.07 percent, higher at 11, 936.08 on Monday.

Over the weekend, China made an announcement to ease its currency policy. Ten out of twelve sectors on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) registered gains with the index measuring the diversified sector rising 3.03 percent and the index measuring the health care sector climbing 3.97 percent.

HudBay Minerals Inc. rallied 7.94 percent. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada's largest base-metals producer, increased 3.62 percent. Biovail Corporation, Canada's largest publicly traded drugmaker, advanced 14.46 percent.

Gold for August delivery dropped 1.97 percent to 1,233.50 U.S. dollars an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, the biggest decline in a month.

The index measuring the materials sector on the TSX lost 1.42 percent. Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest bullion producer, declined 2.45 percent. Goldcorp. Inc., Canada's second largest bullion producer, decreased 2.49 percent.

Another losing sector on the TSX was the information technology sector with the S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology Index shrinking 1.28 percent. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. slipped 2.93 percent. Open Text Corp. lost 1.63 percent. Meanwhile, the financial sector fared well to start the week in Toronto.

The S&P/TSX Capped Financials index was up 0.66 percent, led by Manulife Financial Corp. which added 1.63 percent. Data released by Statistics Canada showed that the national net worth of Canada edged up 0.6 percent in the first quarter.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar weakened slightly against its U.S. counterpart on Monday. One U.S. dollar was buying 1.0241 Canadian dollars at 5pm local time (2100 GMT), compared with one U.S. dollar purchasing 1.0217 Canadian dollars on Friday.