Canadian stocks closed higher on Wednesday despite a slight sell-off in late afternoon trading following the U.S. Federal Reserves decision to keep its overnight lending rate unchanged.

The S&P/TSX composite index ended Wednesdays session up 45.30 points or 0.41% to 11,071.20. The TSX venture exchange also closed higher Wednesday, adding 4.6 points to 1,331.35.

"Part of the problem is perhaps the lack of a real upgrade in the Feds assessment of the economy, though it does see a gradual return to higher levels of capacity utilization," said Andrew Pyle, wealth advisor, Scotia McLeod, as equity markets lost ground on the Feds announcement.

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