TSX Ends Sharply Higher On Widespread Buying

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended on a strong note on Thursday with investors shrugging off concerns about inflation and fears over interest rate hikes, and reacting to upbeat earnings from top companies across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Hectic buying in the energy sector thanks to a surge in crude oil prices contributed significantly to market's sharp rise. Technology, financials, industrials, consumer discretionary and materials shares too ended with strong gains.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 376.83 points or 1.82% at 21,121.06, after climbing to a high of 21,206.46 intraday.

The Energy Capped Index surged up 5.05%. The Information Technology Capped Index climbed nearly 2.5%. The indexes tracking the performances of shares from financials, real estate, industrials, materials, consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors moved up 1.13 to 1.72%.

Suncor Energy (SU.TO) soared 12% on huge volumes. Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) surged up 6.75%, while First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) gained 2 to 7%.

Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) gained about 2%. The company reported net income of $652.3 million for the quarter ended March 2022, compared with net income of $19.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

Nuvei Corporation (NVEI.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), TFI International (TFII.TO), goeasy (GSY.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) and FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO) gained 3 to 6.5%.

AltaGas Limited (ALA.TO) advanced 1.5%. The company reported net income of $357 million for the quarter ended March 2022, compared with net income of $337 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Precision Drilling Inc (PD.TO) reported net loss of $44 million or $3.25 per share for the January - March 2022 quarter, compared with a net loss of $36 million or $2.70 per share in 2021. The stock gained about 2.3%.

On the economic front, a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Canada's CFIB's Business Barometer long-term index, based on a 12-month business outlook, fell by 0.4 points to 64.9 in April of 2022.