Canadian Market Firmly Up In Positive Territory At Noon

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market was firmly entrenched in positive territory around noon on Friday, led by gains in healthcare, materials and information technology sections.

Several stocks from consumer discretionary, industrial, energy and financial sections were also up with strong gains.

A steady trend on Wall Street, where stocks moved higher thanks to encouraging earnings reports from top companies, including Cisco and Disney, and optimism about a coronavirus vaccine help keep investor sentiment positive in the Canadian market.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 145.00 points or 0.87% at 16,728.88 a few minutes before noon.

Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) shares were moving up over 5%. Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO), Air Canada (AC.TO) and First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) gained 3 to 3.5%.

Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) were among the other stocks to have moved higher on strong volumes.

Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Onex Corporation (ONEX.TO), CCL industries (CCL.TO), Maxar Technologies (MAXR.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Magna International (MG.TO) and CNOOC Limited (CNU.TO) gained 1.5 to 7%.

Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO), Telus Corporation (T.TO), Loblaw Companies (L.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) were weak.