TSX Ends On Firm Note; Technology Stocks Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended higher on Wednesday, rebounding after previous session's weak outing, thanks to some strong earnings reports and on hopes global central banks will announce additional stimulus to support economic expansion.

Investors also digested the inflation data released ahead of the opening bell this morning.

Information technology stocks posted impressive gains. Healthcare, energy, financial and industrial shares also had a good outing. Shares from consumer, materials and real estate sections were somewhat subdued.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 95.92 points, or 0.59%, at 16,309.23, the day's high.

The index ended 0.56% down on Tuesday, after having moved up by 0.96% and 0.86% in the previous two sessions.

The Capped Information Technology Index moved up 1.85%. Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO) gained about 4%

BlackBerry (BB.TO) advanced 3.2% and Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) gained nearly 2.5%. Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Quarterhill (QTRH.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) and Photon Control (PHO.TO) gained 1 to 1.6%.

Among energy shares, MEG Energy (MEG.TO) climbed up nearly 5%. Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) gained 3.75% and Shawcor (SCL.TO) ended higher by about 2.5%.

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), PrairieSky Royalty (PSK.TO) and Parex Resources (PXT.TO) gained 0.8 to 1.75%.

In the healthcare section, Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) rallied 5.4%. Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) ended nearly 5% up, Green Organic Dutchman Holdings (TGOD.TO) gained 4.1% and Cronos Group (CRON.TO) advanced 2.1%.

In the financial space, Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.A.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), CI Financial Corp (CIX.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), IGM Financial (IGM.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) gained 0.4 to 1.8%.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) ended higher by about 0.6%. The bank reported a net income of C$3.26 billion ($2.45 billion), or C$2.22 per share, for the third-quarter, up 5% from the year-ago quarter.

Materials shares B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO), Iamgold (IMG.TO), Kinross Gold (K.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO) and Endeavour Mining Corp (EDV.TO) lost 1 to 3.3%.

On the economic front, the annual inflation rate in Canada was at 2% in July 2019, unchanged from the previous month and above market expectations of 1.7%.

Month-on-month, inflation was up 0.5% in July. Core consumer price inflation for July came in at 2%.

U.S. stocks ended firmly in positive territory on upbeat earnings news from retail giants Target and Lowe's. The market also reacted positively to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's July meeting that said the central bank intends to remain flexible regarding future changes to interest rates.

Data showing a notable rebound in U.S. exisiting home sales helped as well in pushing up prices.

European markets ended on a firm note, while markets across the Asia-Pacific region once again turned in a mixed performance.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $0.45, or about 0.8%, at $55.68 a barrel.

Gold futures for December, which rose to $1,518.40 an ounce from an early low of $1,506.50, ended at $1,515.70, their previous close.

Silver futures for September ended up $0.003, at $17.151 an ounce, while Copper futures for September settled at $2.5855 per pound, up $0.0075 from previous close.