TSX Ends On Buoyant Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market closed on a firm note on Wednesday with stocks from across several sectors as investors digested the latest batch of economic data and assessed the impact of US-China tensions on the global economy.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index settled with a gain of 290.49 points or 1.15% at 25,569.84, rising for the second consecutive day following the U.S. President Donald Trump agreeing to hold off tariffs against Canadian imports by a month.

Technology stocks rose sharply, lifting the Information Technology Capped Index by nearly 3%. Materials stocks rallied on firm metal prices. Healthcare, real estate and consumer discretionary stocks climbed higher.

Several stocks from industrials, communications and utilities sectors too posted impressive gains.

Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) soared 45% on upbeat third-quarter earnings. Finning International (FTT.TO) climbed nearly 13% after the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.02 in the fourth-quarter, compared with $0.96 in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 7% to $2.58 billion from $2.40 billion a year ago.

SSR Mining Inc (SSRM.TO) jumped more than 11% following RBC Capital upgrading the the stock's rating to Sector Perform from Underperform with an $8 price target, hiked from $5.50.

ATS Corporation (ATS.TO) gained nearly 7.5% after the company said its third-quarter bottom line came in at $6.51 million, or $0.07 per share. This compares with $47.18 million, or $0.47 per share, last year. Excluding items, ATS Corp. reported adjusted earnings of $30.9 million or $0.32 per share for the period.

Technology stock BlackBerry (BB.TO) surged nearly 10%. Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) rallied 8.8%. Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Computer Modelling Group (CMG.TO), Sylogist (SYZ.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) were among the other major gainers in the tech sector.

In economic news, the S&P Global Canada Composite PMI improved to 49.5 in January 2025, up from 49.0 in December. The S&P Global Canada Services PMI recorded 49.0 in January 2025, slightly up from 48.2 in December 2024.

Canada posted a trade surplus of C$0.7 billion in December of 2024, after recording an upwardly revised deficit of C$1 billion in November. Exports of goods jumped by 4.9% from the previous month to C$69.5 billion, while imports rose by 2.3% to a record high of $68.8 billion.