Canadian Market Up In Positive Territory; Bank Stocks Gain On Strong Earnings

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory in late morning trade on Friday, with investors picking up stocks, reacting to the latest batch of earnings updates, and reports saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready for talks with Ukraine to discuss a possible neutral status for the neighboring country.

Although the U.S. and its allies have imposed severe sanctions on Russia, condemning its invasion of Ukraine, the measures are not seen as crippling as some had feared.

The West's seeming unwillingness to target Russia's energy sector has helped ease worries about a spike in oil and gas prices fueling further inflation.

Fairly encouraging economic data from the U.S. and Canada, and firm European and US markets too contribute to the positive mood in the market.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 204.50 points or 0.98% at 20,966.43 about half an hour before noon.

Financials shares are up with impressive gains. The Capped Financials Index is climbing up 1.8%. Industrials, energy, communications and utilities stocks are among the other notable gainers.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) is gaining 4.3% after the bank said it posted first-quarter net income of C$1.87 billion or C$4.03 per share, up 15% from C$1.63 billion or C$3.55 per share in the prior-year quarter.

National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) is up by about 1.5%. The bank reported a net income of $932 million for the first quarter of 2022, up 22% from a net income of $761 million it posted in the year-ago quarter.

Canadian Western Bank (CWB.TO) is gaining 2.6%. The bank reported first-quarter diluted earnings of $0.97 per share, up 7% from a year ago.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) are up 1.8 to 2.7%.

Onex Corp (ONEX.TO) is gaining about 2% despite reporting lower earnings for the latest quarter. Onex reported net earnings of $214 million for the three months ended December 2021, compared with $597 million a year ago.

Data released by Statistics Canada showed manufacturing sales in Canada likely advanced by 3.9% from a month earlier in January of 2022, according to preliminary estimates. This is the steepest rise since July of 2020, and up from 0.6% increase in the prior month.

According to a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the country's CFIB's business barometer long-term index, which is based on 12-month outlook, rose by 8 points to 62.5 in February of 2022, from a 15-month low of 54.7 in the previous month.

Data from the Department of Finance showed Canada's government budget switched to a C$ 3.58 billion surplus in December of 2021, from a deficit of C$ 16.15 billion in the same month of the previous year.