TSX Ends Modestly Higher; Technology Stocks Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market closed higher on Wednesday, led by gains in technology, healthcare and financials sectors.

Buoyant U.S. services sector data aided sentiment, while weak crude oil prices weighed on energy stocks and limited market's upside. Materials shares were weak as well.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 40.61 points or 0.21% at 19,545.94, after scaling a low of 19,485.03 and a high of 19,616.12 intraday.

The Information Technology Capped Index surged 4.56%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) soared 10.8%. Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) gained 9 to 10%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Magnet Forensics (MAGT.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) and Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO) also posted strong gains.

In the healthcare section, Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) zoomed nearly 13.5%. Cronos Group (CRON.TO) climbed 3.3% and Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) gained 1.63%.

Among financials shares, Goeasy (GSY.TO) rallied 4.7%, CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) gained 1 to 2%.

The Energy Capped Index shed 4.27%. Paramount Resources (POU.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) lost 5.9 to 9%.

Materials shares Ero Copper (ERO.TO), K92 Mining (KNT.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Kinross Gold (K.TO) and First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO) declined sharply.