TSX Ends Notably Higher; Technology Stocks Move Up

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market closed on a bright note on Wednesday after holding firm right through the day's session, thanks to strong gains in technology, real estate, financials and healthcare sectors.

Investors reacted positively to U.S. consumer price inflation data. The data showed consumer prices rose by slightly more than expected in December, the annual rate of core consumer price growth unexpectedly slowed.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index climbed by 0.4% in December after rising by 0.3% in November. Economists had expected consumer prices to rise by another 0.3%.

The report also said the annual rate of growth by consumer prices accelerated to 2.9% in December from 2.7% in November, in line with economist estimates.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 200.72 points or 0.82% at 24,789.30, about 100 points off the day's high of 24,879.24.

Technology stocks Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Converge Technoloy Services (CTS.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Tecsys (TCS.TO), Sangoma Technologies (STC.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Open Text Corporation (OTEX.TO) and Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) gained 2 to 4%. Bitfarms (BITF.TO) climbed nearly 5%.

Real estate stock Colliers International (CIGI.TO) climbed nearly 5.5%. First Capital (FCR.UN.TO), Riocan Real Estate (REI.UN.TO), Boardwalk Real Estate (BEI.UN.TO) also closed notably higher.

Among healthcare stocks, Chartwell Retirement (CSH.UN.TO) and Sienna Senior Living (SIA.TO) gained 2.7% and 1.7%, respectively.

In the financials sector, Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Sprott Inc (SII.TO), EQB Inc (EQB.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) posted strong gains.