Canadian Market Up Firmly; Technology, Materials Stocks Among Major Gainers

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory Thursday afternoon on sustained buying in stocks from across various sectors thanks to encouraging economic data from the U.S. and on continued optimism about an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September.

Technology, materials, financials, energy and healthcare stocks are among the prominent gainers.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 166.10 points or 0.72% at 23,293.08 a little while ago.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) is gaining nearly 6.5% on upbeat quarterly earnings. The bank reported adjusted net income of $1,895 million for the third quarter, compared to $1,475 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) is gaining about 1.8%. Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) are up 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) is down by about 1.7%.

Technology stock Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) is up 7.5%, rebounding from recent weakness. BlackBerry (BB.TO) is up nearly 4% and Bitfarms (BITF.TO) is gaining 3.5%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Dye & Durham (DND.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are up 2 to 2.5%. Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO) and Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) are also notably higher.

Materials stocks Algoma Steel Group (ASTL.TO), K92 Mining (KNT.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), Novagold (NG.TO), Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO), Kinross Gold (K.TO), Sandstorm Gold (SSL.TO), Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) and B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) are up 1.8 to 4%.

In the energy sector, Ces Energy Solutions (CEU.TO), Topaz Energy (TPZ.TO), Baytex Energy Corp (BTE.TO), Headwater Exploration (HWX.TO), International Petroleum Corp (IPCO.TO) and Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) are up 2 to 3%.

Data from Statistics Canada said Canada's current account deficit widened significantly to C$ 8.5 billion in the second quarter of 2024, up from C$ 5.4 billion in the previous quarter. This marks the eighth consecutive quarterly deficit and the largest in seven quarters.

A separate data from Statistics Canada showed average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada increased by 4% year-on-year to $1,252 in June 2024, slowing from a downwardly revised 4.1% growth in the previous month.