TSX Ends On Firm Note As Soft Inflation Data Lifts Sentiment

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks closed higher on Tuesday as cooler-than-expected consumer price inflation data helped underpin sentiment.

Encouraging economic data from across the border helped as well.

Consumer discretionary, technology, real estate, industrials, healthcare and financials shares were among the prominent gainers.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 145.77 points or 0.74% at 19,733.09 after scaling a low of 19,579.07 and a high of 19,757.38 intraday.

Data from Statistics Canada showed the annual inflation rate in Canada fell to 3.4% in May of 2023 from 4.4% in the previous month, the lowest since June 2021. On a monthly basis, the CPI edged 0.4% higher, following the 0.7% increase in April.

Canadian annual core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs, eased to an 18-month low of 3.7% in May 2023, down from 4.1% in April.

The somewhat soft inflation data has slightly weakened the case for a rate hike in July.

Consumer discretionary stocks Sleep Country Canada Holdings (ZZZ.TO), Aritzia Inc (ATZ.TO), Magna International (MG.TO), Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), BRP Inc (DOO.TO) and Linamar Corp (LNR.TO) gained 2.3 to 3.4%.

In the technology sector, Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) soared 11.5%. Bitfarms (BITF.TO) surged 7.2%, while Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) and Sylogist (SYZ.TO) gained 3.8 to 6%.

Among financials, Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) climbed 5.1%, Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO) surged 3.75% and Brookfield Corporation (BN.TO) gained 2.7%. Fairfax Financial (FFH.TO), Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) also posted strong gains.