TSX Climbs Nearly 3% On All-round Buying

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market recorded one of its best sessions in several months on Thursday as investors went a buying spree across the board, cheering a slew of upbeat earnings updates, and on optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a big gain of 547.34 points or 2.87% at 19,626.34, slightly off the day's high of 19,640.06.

Buying was so widespread that all the sectoral indices closed with strong gains. Technology stocks rallied as bond yields fell. The Information Technology Capped Index climbed as much as 6.07%.

Utilities, communications and healthcare stocks surged higher, lifting the respective indices up by 4.28%, 3.75% and 3.21%, respectively. The Financials Capped Index gained nearly 3%, while the Real Estate, energy and Consumer Discretionary indices advanced 2.64%, 2.38% and 2.23%, respectively.

Consumer Staples and Industrials shares rallied as well, and materials stocks came off early lows, with many of them closing with impressive gains.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ.TO) gained 4%. The company reported third-quarter net earnings of $2,344 million, or $2.13 per diluted common share, up from $1,463 million, or $1.34 per diluted common share in the previous quarter.

Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) advanced 1.5% after reporting third-quarter net earnings of nearly $1.9 billion, compared with $866 million in the previous quarter.

Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO) gained 2% after reporting record first-quarter revenue of US$1.42 billion.

Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) soared more than 16% after the company raised its annual revenue forecast.

BCE Inc. (BCE.TO) climbed 2.3% after the company reported adjusted net earnings of $741 million for the third quarter ended September 2023, compared with adjusted net earnings of $801 million in the year-ago quarter.

Bombardier Inc (BBD.A.TO) soared 11.5% after the company reported a revenue of $1.9 billion in the third quarter 2023, an impressive 28% year-over-year increase.

Maple Leaf Foods (MFI.TO) tanked about 8%. The company reported adjusted operating earnings of $70.5 million in the third quarter of current financial year, up from $24.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX.TO) reported Thursday that its third-quarter net earnings climbed to $368 million from last year's $241 million. The stock ended down 0.7%.