Canadian Market Up Sharply On Widespread Buying

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market is up sharply Thursday afternoon, with investors tracking positive global cues and thronging several counters from across various sectors.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 2666.33 points or 1.32% at 20,457.99 about a couple of hours past noon.

The market is reacting positively to news from the U.S. that the lawmakers have reached an agreement to temporarily extend the debt limit, thus avoiding a potential default.

Data showing a bigger than expected drop in U.S. jobless claims in the week ended October 2nd, and a strong reading on Canada's business conditions are also aiding sentiment.

The Ivey Purchasing Managers Index in Canada increased to 70.4 in September of 2021 from 66 in the prior month, signaling a continued improvement in business conditions in Canada, a report from the Richard Ivey School of Business showed. The reading was the highest since June.

Consumer discretionary, information technology, healthcare and energy stocks are up sharply. The indexes tracking the performance of stocks from these sectors are up between 2.1 to 3%.

Materials and real estate stocks are also up with impressive gains. Several stocks from industrials, financial and consumer staples sections are moving up as well.

Consumer discretionary stocks Mty Food Group (MTY.TO), Magna International (MG.TO) and Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), information technology shares Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Alithya Group (ALYA.TO) and BlackBerry (BB.TO) are rising 3 to 7%.

PrairieSky Royalty (PSK.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are gaining 3 to 5%.

Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO), Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), Cronos Group (CRON.TO), Chartwell Retirement Residences (CSH.UN.TO) and Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) are up 1.5 to 4.3%.