Energy, Healthcare Shares Lift TSX

(RTTNews) - After swinging between gains and losses till around early afternoon, the Canadian stock market moved higher on Thursday, riding on gains in energy and healthcare shares.

Materials, industrial and consumer discretionary shares moved up as well. A few stocks from real estate section too gained ground.

Worries about global growth, mixed economic data, Brexit uncertainty and U.S.-China trade disputes rendered the mood cautious and limited market's upside.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 72.45 points, or 0.48%, at 15.280.78, slightly off the day's high of 15,281.27. The index touched a low of 15,194.30 early on in the session.

On Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down 25.43 points, or 0.17%, at 15,208.33.

The Capped Energy Index ended up 1.5%. Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Encana Corporation (ECA.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TOU.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and PrairieSky Royalty (PSK.TO) gained 1 to 3%.

The Capped Materials Index ended up 0.88%. Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), B2Gold Corp. (BTO.TO) and Kirkland Lake Global (KL.TO) ended higher by 1 to 2%.

The Capped Healthcare Index climbed 2.55%. Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO) ended 1.5% up, Sienna Senior Living Inc. (SIA.TO) gained 1.05%, Aurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB.TO) jumped more than 7% and Cronos Group Inc. (CRON.TO) ended 6.6% up. Cronos Group announced on Wednesday that it has entered into a credit agreement with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Bank of Montreal, in respect of a $65 million secured non-revolving term loan credit facility.

In the industrials space, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) ended nearly 3% up. The company said that increased demand for commodities and strong pricing will result in a double-digit growth in its earnings in 2019. Net income plunged 45% to $545 million in the three months ended December 2018, compared to the same period in 2017.

Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) gained 1% and Air Canada (AC.TO) ended 1.6% up. Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO) declined 4.4%. The company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Triumph's Global 7500 wing manufacturing operations and assets.

Among bank stocks, Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) and National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) gained 0.3 to 0.7%, while Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) edged up marginally.

Technology shares Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO), Celestica Inc. (CLS.TO) and Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) gained 1 to 1.9%, while Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO) jumped 3.3%.

The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings (TGOD.TO) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, TGOD Acquisition Corporation (SpinCo) announced that TGOD has received a final order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approving the previously announced plan of arrangement between TGOD and SpinCo. Green Organic Dutchman Holdings shares gained nearly 14.5%.

Hydro One (H.TO) gained 1.7%. Hydro One and Avista Corp have agreed to terminate their merger after failing to receive regulatory backing.

On Wall Street, movements were quite sluggish due to comments from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who told CNBC the U.S. is "miles and miles" from a trade deal with China. "Frankly, that shouldn't be too surprising," Ross said, noting the U.S. and China have "lots and lots of issues."

The comments from Ross come ahead of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He's trip to Washington next week for the next round of trade negotiations.

In U.S. economic news, a report from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level in almost fifty years in the week ended January 19th.

Meanwhile, a separate report from the Conference Board showed a modest decrease by its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of December. The Conference Board's leading economic index edged down by 0.1% in December after rising by 0.2% in November. The slight drop by the index matched economist estimates.

European markets ended on a mixed note after a fairly steady start. The markets shrugged off weak Eurozone economic data, but failed to make any significant progress as the mood turned cautious as the session progressed. Investors were also tracking news on Brexit and the partial U.S. government shutdown for direction.

The European Central Bank, as expected, left its policy rates and forward guidance unchanged today. ECB President Mario Draghi said in his post meeting press conference that risks to the euro area growth are now tilted to the downside, thanks to persistent uncertainties such as protectionism.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday.

In commodities, crude oil futures for March ended up $0.51, or about 1%, at $53.13 a barrel despite data from EIA showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week.

Gold futures for April ended down $4.30, or 0.3%, at $1,285.90 an ounce.

Silver futures for March ended down $15.300 an ounce, down $0.080 for the session, while Copper futures for March ended down $0.0100, at $2.6445 per pound.