Canadian Market Holding In Positive Territory; Technology Stocks Rally

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares are holding in positive territory Monday afternoon, led by gains in technology sector thanks to a drop in bond prices amid bets the Fed will slow its pace of monetary tightening.

Optimism surrounding China's reopening, and expectations that the Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of interest rate hikes are aiding the market.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 119.10 points or 0.6% at 19,933.61, more than 50 points down from the session's high of 19,987.54.

The Information Technology Capped Index is climbing 2.5%. Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) is soaring more than 21%. Converge Technology Solutions (CTS.TO) is gaining 8.4%, while Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Dye & Durham (DND.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Alithya Corp (ALYA.TO) are up 3 to 4.5%.

Industrials stock Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO) is rising 8.4%. Finning International (FTT.TO), Brookfield Business Partners (BBU.UN.TO), Snc-Lavalin (SNC.TO), WSP Global (WSP.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Badger International (BDGI.TO) and Cae Inc (CAE.TO) are gaining 2.5 to 4.3%.

Real estate stocks are finding support after data showed a sharp increase in Canadian building permits.

Data released by Statistics Canada this morning showed the total value of building permits in Canada soared by 14.1% from the previous month to C$ 11.03 billion in November of 2022, rebounding from the upwardly revised 5.3% decline in the corresponding period of the previous month.

Interrent Real Estate Investment (IIP.UN.TO), Firstservice Corp (FSV.TO), Allied Properties Real Estate (AP.UN.TO), CDN Apartment (CAR.UN.TO) and Colliers International (CIGI.TO) are gaining 1 to 3%.