Canadian Market Modestly Higher At Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is modestly higher around noon on Thursday, led by gains in technology, energy, healthcare and materials sectors.

Despite rising concerns about inflation and slowing growth, and the political turmoil in the U.K., the mood is cautiously optimistic thanks to some upbeat earnings updates from big-name U.S. companies.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 43.79 points or 0.23% at 18,718.19. The index rose to 18,838.79 before paring a substantial portion of its gains.

The Information Technology Capped Index is up nearly 3%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is rising 7.5%, Magnet Forensics (MAGT.TO) is gaining 6.8% and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is advancing 5.5%.

BlackBerry (BB.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO) and Open Text Corporation (OTEX.TO) are up 2 to 5%.

Energy stocks Paramount Resources (POU.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) are up 2.5 to 4.5%.

In the materials section, First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) is soaring 8.7%. First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO), K92 Mining Inc (KNT.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO) and MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) are up 4 to 7%.

Among the stocks in the Health Care Index, Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is rising 6.3%. Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) is gaining 3% and Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is up 2.8%. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) is up by about 1.6%.

Mullen Group Ltd. (MTL.TO) shares are down more than 5% despite the company reporting a jump in earnings. The company reported a net income of $38 million for the quarter ended September 2022, compared with $17.5 million in the year-ago quarter.