Canadian Market Up Sharply, Set To End On Buoyant Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory Thursday afternoon and look well on course to end the day's session on a strong note.

Buying is so widespread that all the sectoral indices are up in positive territory.

Encouraging U.S. retail sales and jobless claims data contribute significantly to the positive mood in the U.S. and Canadian markets.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 286.57 points or 1.4% at 20,565.51.

Real estate, Materials, industrials, utilities, healthcare, technology, financials and communications shares are mostly up with notable gains. Several stocks from energy, consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors are also up with strong gains.

Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO) climbed nearly 7%. Stella-Jones Inc (SJ.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO) and FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO) are gaining 3 to 4%.

Nutrien (NTR.TO), Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Boyd Corporation (BYD.TO), Stantec (STN.TO), WSP Global Inc (WSP.TO) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO) are up 2 to 3%.

Among the losers, Dye & Durham (DND.TO) is down 17% and Laurentian Bank of India (LB.TO) is plunging 12%.

Bausch + Lomb Corporation (BLCO.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.A.TO), Linamar Corporation (LNR.TO), EQB Inc (EQB.TO) and TFI International (TFII.TO) are down 1 to 2.2%.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada rose by 0.2% month-over-month to C$81.3 billion in July 2023, compared to a preliminary estimate of a 1.4% gain and following a downwardly revised 2.1% drop in the previous month.