Canadian Market Up Marginally At Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which suffered its worst single session setback in recent months on the previous session, is up marginally at noon on Thursday, supported by gains in industrials and consumer staples sectors.

The broad market remains a bit sluggish with investors refraining from making significant moves, preferring to wait for the retail sales data for more clarity about the likely interest-rate trajectory of the central bank.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 26.50 points or 0.13% at 20,721.52 a few minutes before noon. The index, which advanced to 20,782.26 in early trades, dropped to a low of 20.677.11 before edging higher again.

Badger Infrastructure Solutions (BDGI.TO), up 3.3%, is the top gainer in the Industrials Index. Gfl Environmental Inc (GFL.TO) is gaining 3.1%. Ats Corp (ATS.TO), WSP Global (WSP.TO), Brookfield Business Partners (BBU.UN.TO), Stantec (STN.TO), CAE Inc (CAE.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), Air Canada (AC.TO), Finning International (FTT.TO) and Snc-Lavalin Group (SNC.TO) are up 1 to 2.3%.

Consumer staples shares Loblaw Co (L.TO), George Weston (WN.TO), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO), The North West Company (NWC.TO), Maple Leaf Foods (MFI.TO) and Saputo (SAP.TO) are gaining 1 to 1.6%.

Among other prominent gainers, Quebecor Inc (QBR.A.TO) is rising 4.3%, while Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Onex Corporation (ONEX.TO) are advancing 3.2% and 2.5%, respectively.

Among the major losers, Hut 8 Corp (HUT.TO) is down more than 16%. Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO) is down 14%. NFI Group (NFI.TO) is lower by about 7% and Interfor Corporation (IFP.TO) is down 5.2%. Canfor Corp (CFP.TO), Richelieu Hardware (RCH.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are also down sharply.