TSX Ends On Firm Note; Technology, Materials Shares Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended on a firm note on Wednesday, aided by strong gains in technology, materials, financials and real estate stocks.

Several stocks from utilities, consumer discretionary and industrials sectors too posted notable gains. Energy stocks struggled a bit due to weak crude oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 188.58 points or 0.96% at 19,879.79, after scaling a low of 19,713.51 and 19,907.28 intraday.

Technology stocks climbed higher amid optimism about strong earnings from U.S. tech giant Nvidia. The Information Technology Capped Index climbed 2.73%.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) gained nearly 5%. Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Dye & Durham (DND.TO), Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) gained 1.5 to 3.6%.

Materials shares Wesdome Gold Mines (WDO.TO), Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Centerra Gold (CG.TO), K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO) and Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) climbed 5 to 7.2%.

In the financials sector, National Bank of Canada (NA.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) and Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) advanced 1 to 1.5%. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) also ended notably higher.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed retail sales in Canada likely increased by 0.4% from the previous month in July, according to a preliminary estimate. On a yearly basis, retail sales sank 0.6% in June, the first decline since the pandemic-driven slump in May 2020.