Canadian Market Up In Positive Territory; Materials Shares Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up in positive territory on Friday, supported by strong gains in materials shares, which are moving up on firm metal prices.

The mood, however, remains a bit cautious amid fresh concerns about the outlook for Fed interest rates following hawkish comments from some officials.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 80.57 points or 0.36% at 22,380.40 a few minutes before noon.

The Materials Capped Index is up nearly 2%. Novagold (NG.TO), Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO) and Ero Copper (ERO.TO) are gaining 5 to 6%.

First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO), Lundin Mining (LUN.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Alamos Gold (AGI.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO), Seabridge Gold (SEA.TO) and Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO) are up 3 to 5%.

International Petroleum Corp (IPCO.TO), Kelt Exploration (KEL.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corporation (TOU.TO), Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO) and Athabasca Oil Corporation (ATH.TO), up between 1 to 2.3%, are the prominent gainers in the energy sector.

Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) is down by about 2.5%. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), down 8%, is the biggest loser in the Healthcare Index. The stock is down after the company announced that it may offer and sell shares of common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $250 million.