Canadian Market Climbing Higher As Technology, Energy Stocks Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory a little past noon on Wednesday, led by gains in energy, industrials and technology stocks.

A firm trend on Wall Street and a positive lead from European markets are contributing to the improved sentiment in the market. The rally in Nasdaq following fairly decent earnings updates from Alphabet and Microsoft is triggering strong buying in the technology space.

Investors, looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's policy announcement, due later in the day, are also digesting a slew of earnings reports from Canadian companies.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 185.80 points or 0.98% at 19,158.48 a few minutes past noon.

Precision Drilling Corp. (PD.TO) reported lower than expected second-quarter net loss of C$25 million or C$1.81 per share, compared with a net loss of C$76 million or C$5.71 per share in the prior year. The stock is gaining 2.6%.

Loblaw Companies Limited (L.TO) reported second-quarter net earnings of C$387 million or C$1.16 per share as compared to C$375 million or C$1.09 per share in the prior-period quarter. Despite a marginal rise in earnings, the stock is down nearly 4%.

Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI.A.TO) reported adjusted net income of $463 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, up 20%, compared with adjusted net income of $387 million in the year-ago quarter. The stock is gaining about 1.3%.

Cameco Corporation (CCO.TO) is soaring 9% on upbeat earnings. The company reported adjusted net earnings of $72 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, as against net loss of $38 million a year ago.

Energy stocks ARC Resources (ARX.TO), Athabasca Oil Corp (ATH.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Birchcliff Energy (BIR.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) are gaining 2 to 7%.

Among technology stocks, Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is up nearly 6%, bouncing back strongly after suffering a sharp loss in the previous session. Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) is up 4%, BlackBerry (BB.TO) is gaining 2.75%, Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is advancing 2.3% and Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) is up 2.1%.

In the industrials section, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO) is rising 6% and Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) is surging 4%. Cargojet (CJT.TO) and Ats Automation (ATA.TO) both are up by about 3.25%.