TSX Ends Nearly 1.9% Up, Gains 2.61% In Week

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended on a buoyant note on Friday, with stocks across the board turning in a fine performance thanks to sustained buying interest.

Despite concerns about slowing growth and sharp interest rate hikes, investors chose to pick up stocks that had taken a severe beating in recent sessions.

Firm commodity prices and positive cues from the U.S. and European markets aided sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 360.34 points or 1.86% at 19,773.34, a few points down from the day's high of 19,789.58. The index gained about 2.61% in the week.

Healthcare, technology, energy, materials and consumer staples shares rallied sharply. The Health Care Capped index surged 4.03%, and the Information Technology Capped Index climbed 3.44%, while the Energy, Materials and Consumer Staples indexes gained 2.69%, 2.44% and 2.16%, respectively.

Real estate, financials, industrials and consumer discretionary stocks too closed with strong gains.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) rallied 8.4% on strong volumes. Tamarack Valley Energy (TVE.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Lundin Mining Corporation (LUN.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) climbed 3.3 to 5.5%.

Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Telus Corporation (T.TO), Barrick Gold (ABX.TO), TC Energy Corporation (TRP.TO), Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) also posted impressive gains on fairly huge volumes.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed the Canadian economy shed 39,700 jobs in August of 2022. Full time employment in Canada decreased 77,200 in August, while part-time employment increased to 37,500 in the month from -17,500 in July.

The unemployment rate in Canada rose to 5.4% in August of 2022 from the record-low of 4.9% observed in the previous two months.