Canadian Market Up Marginally At Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up marginally around noon on Tuesday with investors largely refraining from making significant moves despite data showing a drop in Canadian consumer price inflation in the month of December.

Energy, industrials, utilities and communications shares are among the notable gainers. Materials shares are weak, while shares from other sectors are turning in a mixed performance.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 33.28 points or 0.16% at 20,423.61 a little before noon.

Data from Statistics Canada showed Canada's annual inflation rate fell to 6.3% in December of 2022, the least since February 2022 and below market expectations of 6.4%, compared to the 6.8% in November and further declining from the 1983-high of 8.1% from June.

On a monthly basis, the Canadian CPI declined by 0.6%, the most since April 2020.

The core consumer price inflation in Canada, which excludes volatile items and the effect of indirect taxes, eased to 5.4 percent year-on-year in December 2022, down from 5.8 percent in the previous month. It was the lowest rate since February.

Housing starts in Canada declined 5% over a month earlier to 248,625 units in December of 2022, below market expectations of 257,500 units, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC).

Energy stocks Tamarack Valley Energy (TVE.TO), MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Nuvista Energy (NVA.TO) and Africa Oil Corp (AOI.TO) are up 2 to 3.15%.

In the industrials section, Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO) is climbing nearly 5%. Cargojet (CJT.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO), Snc-Lavalin (SNC.TO), Badger Infrastructure Solutions (BDGI.TO), Richie Bros. Auctioneers (RBA.TO) and Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) are up 1 to 2%.

Utilities stock Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp (AQN.TO) is up 4.8%. Hydro One (H.TO), Northland Power (NPI.TO) and Brookfield Infra Partners (BIP.UN.TO) are gaining 1 to 1.2%.

Communications stock Telus Corp (T.TO) is up nearly 1.5%. Rogers Communications Inc (RCI.B.TO) and Shaw Communications (SJR.B.TO) both are gaining about 0.6%.