TSX Ends Sharply Higher; Technology, Healthcare Stocks Post Strong Gains

(RTTNews) - After staying firmly up in positive territory till well past noon on Wednesday, the Canadian stock market suffered a setback that very nearly pushed it down into the red, but recovered swiftly to end the session on a strong note.

Hopes about progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, and the Chinese government's pledge to come up with more economic stimulus lifted the market up this morning, but stocks retreated after the Fed announced a rate hike and signaled a series of hikes this year. However, the market recovered soon and ended sharply higher thanks to widespread buying in late afternoon trade..

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a strong gain of 280.99 points or 1.33% at 21,468.83, slightly off the day's high of 21,485.77.

Technology and healthcare stocks hogged the limelight. The Information Technology Capped Index surged up more than 6%. The Healthcare Capped Index climbed 4.76% and the Consumer Discretionary Capped Index moved up 2.82%.

The Real Estate, Industrials, Consumer Staples and Financials indexes moved up 1.5 to 2.8%. Energy, communications and utilities shares ended mixed, while materials stocks remained mostly subdued.

In Canadian economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed Canada's annual inflation rate accelerated to 5.7% in February, the highest since August 1991, and slightly above market expectations of 5.5%. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose at a fresh record pace of 4.7%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 1% in February, beating market forecasts of a 0.9% gain and marginally quicker than a 0.9% increase in January.

Core consumer prices in Canada increased by 4.8% in February over the same month in the previous year.

Meanwhile, wholesale sales in Canada rose for the fifth consecutive month, growing by 4.2% month-over-month to C$ 79.8 billion in January of 2022, compared to preliminary estimates of a 3.8% rise.