Canadian Market Rises On Strong Jobs Data; Energy, Technology Stocks Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory a little past noon on Friday, led by gains in energy, technology and financials sectors.

Several stocks from consumer discretionary, industrials and healthcare sectors are also notably higher.

The mood remains quite positive after data showed jobs growth in Canada beat expectations for a fifth straight month. According to the data released by Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy added 41,400 jobs in April 2023, much higher than an expected addition of 20,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate in Canada was at 5% for a fifth consecutive month in April, remaining near the record low of 4.9% seen in June and July of 2022.

Meanwhile, average hourly earnings for permanent employeess in Canada increased by 5.2% year-on-year to $34.13 in April.

Data from the Labor Department showed non-farm payroll employment in the U.S. shot up by 253,000 jobs in April compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 179,000 jobs.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 265.11 points or 1.3% at 20,503.30 about half an hour past noon.

The Energy Capped Index is up 3.27%. Pason Systems (PSI.TO) and ARC Resources (ARX.TO) both are gaining more than 7%. Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO), Africa Oil Corp (AOI.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Advantage Oil Corp (AAV.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Paramount Resources (POU.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Prairiesky Royalty (PSK.TO) and Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) are gaining 3 to 6%.

The Information Technology Capped Index is rising nearly 3.5%. Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO) is soaring 12.3%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), which posted a hefty gain in the previous session, is up nearly 7%. BlackBerry (BB.TO), Bitforms (BITF.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO) and Sylogist (SYZ.TO) are up 3.5 to 7%.

In the financials sector, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) and Sunlife Financial (SLF.TO) are up 1 to 2.2%, while Goeasy (GSY.TO) is gaining nearly 4%.