TSX Ends On Upbeat Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended on a strong note on Friday, lifted by gains in energy, materials, industrials and consumer discretionary sectors.

Several stocks from consumer staples, utilities, technology and financials sectors too posted impressive gains.

Data showing a drop in U.S. wage growth and a contraction in U.S. service sector activity in the month of December helped ease concerns about aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile, data from Statistics Canada showed the Canadian economy created 104,000 jobs in December of 2022, beating market expectations of an addition of 8,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate in Canada was at 5% in December of 2022, the lowest since the record-low of 4.9% in June and July, decreasing from 5.1% in the prior month and beating market estimates of 5.2%.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended higher by 307.67 points or 1.58% at 19,814.51, just a few points off the day's high. The index gained about 2.22% in the week.

The Energy Capped Index surged 2.53%. The Industrials Index climbed 2.12%, while the Consumer Discretionary and Materials Indices gained 1.86% and 1.67%, respectively.

The Utilities Capped Index gained 1.51% and the Consumer Staples Index advanced 1.34%, while the Financials Index and the Information Technology Index surged 1.09% and 0.9%, respectively.

Methanex Corporation (MX.TO) surged more than 7%. Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Dollarama (DOL.TO), TFI International (TFII.TO) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) gained 3 to 4%.

Nutrien (NTR.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Colliers International Group (CIGI.TO), Waste Connections (WCN.TO) and WSP Global (WSP.TO) rallied 2 to 3%.