TSX Rises To Record High On All-round Buying

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory a little before noon on Thursday with stocks from several sectors moving higher on strong buying support.

Mining stocks are up sharply following a notable increase in metal prices, and technology stocks are gaining in strength, tracking impressive earnings updates from a few big name U.S. tech companies.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 356.70 points or 1.4% at 25,830.00 about a quarter to noon, slightly off a new record high of 25,845.23 touched this morning.

The Capped Materials Index is climbing up 3.6%. MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO), Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), First Majestic Silver (AG.TO), Aya Gold & Silver (AYA.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Seabridge Gold (SEA.TO), Ssr Mining Inc (SSRM.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV.TO), New Gold (NGD.TO) and Equinox Gold (EQX.TO) are gaining 5 to 9%.

The Information Technology Capped Index is up 3.1%. Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), up 13%, is the biggest gainer in the sector.

CGI Group (GIB.A.TO) is gaining 5.1%. Bitfarms (BITF.TO) is up 4.5%. Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are up 1.3 to 2.5%.

Industrials shares Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), Waste Connections (WCN.TO) and Finning International (FTT.TO) are up 2.3 to 4%. Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), Russel Metals (RUS.TO), Air Canada (AC.TO), Badger Infrastructure (BDGI.TO) and Nfi Group Inc (NFI.TO) are also notably higher.

Transalta Corp (TA.TO), up 4.8%, is the biggest gainer in the utilities sector. Capital Power Corp (CPX.TO) is gaining 3.7% and Superior Plus Corp (SPB.TO) is advancing 2%, while Brookfield Infra Partners (BIP.UN.TO), Fortis Inc (FTS.TO), Canadian Utilities (CU.TO) and ATCO (ACO.X.TO) are up 1.5 to 2%.

Real Matters Inc (REAL.TO) shares are down 2.5% despite turaround results. The company reported a net income of $2.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, up from net loss of $3.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

Allied Properties (AP.UN.TO), Collier International Group (CIGI.TO), Granite Real Estate (GRT.UN.TO) and Boardwalk Real Estate Investment (BEI.UN.TO) are among the prominent gainer in the real estate sector, notching up 1.4 to 2.5%.

Data from Statistics Canada said average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada rose by 5% year-on-year to $1,285.91 in November 2024, the most in five months, following an upwardly revised 4.2% growth in October.

A report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the CFIB business barometer long-term index in Canada, which tracks 12-month business outlooks, fell to 54.6 in January 2025, from a score of 56.4 recorded in December 2024.