TSX Ends On Strong Note On Widespread Buying

(RTTNews) - After staying firm right through the day's session, the Canadian market ended on a strong note on Thursday thanks to impressive gains in technology, healthcare, energy and financials sectors.

Stocks moved higher, tracking gains on Wall Street where data showing an increase in jobless claims helped ease concerns about aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 201.79 points or 1.05% at 19,485.89, around 30 points off the day's high of 19,515.38.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) surged more than 7% on huge volumes. The counter logged a volume of nearly 3.26 million shares today.

Air Canada (AC.TO) climbed 4.7% on strong volumes. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and Manulife Finanial Corporation (MFC.TO) gained 1.4 to 2.3%.

Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO) climbed 6.2%. Cogeco Inc (CGO.TO), Onex Corporation (ONEX.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Colliers International (CIGI.TO), Magna International (MG.TO) and Cogeco Communications (CCA.TO) gained 3 to 5.3%.

Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO), TFI International (TFII.TO), Lundin Mining Corporation (LUN.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) also ended with impressive gains.

On the economic front, a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business showed the reading on small business sentiment in Canada increased to 50.9 points in December from 50.0 points in November.