TSX Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market started off on a bright note Thursday morning, gave up some gains by mid morning and slipped into negative territory for a brief while but eventually managed to end the day with modest gains.

The focus was on corporate earnings, which turned out to be a mixed bag. A firm trend seen in European markets aided sentiment, although the sluggish trend in the U.S. market proved a dampener of sorts for Canadian stocks.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 33.39 points, or 0.2%, at 16,369.32, near the day's low. The index touched a high of 16,412.08 in early trades.

On Wednesday, the index ended down 55.59 points, or 0.34%, at 16,335.93.

Information technology stocks gained in strength, tracking the firm trend exhibited by tech stocks on Wall Street. The Capped Information Technology Index gained nearly 2.5%.

Higher gold prices triggered strong buying in the materials space. The Capped Materials index ended up 1.78%.

Select shares from industrial, healthcare and consumer discretionary sections found good support. Financial, utilities and telecommunications shares turned in a mixed performance, while energy and consumer staples shares were weak.

Among information technology shares, Photon Control (PHO.TO) soared 11.5% and Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO) gained 8.8%. Celestica (CLS.TO) ended nearly 3% up. Exfo Inc. (EXF.TO) ended 1.9% up and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) gained about 1%.

In the materials space, Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO) and Wesdome Gold Mines (WDO.TO) gained more than 7%. Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Novagold (NG.TO), Detour Gold Corp (DGC.TO), Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO), Centerra Gold (CG.TO), Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Sandstorm Gold (SSL.TO), Alacer Gold (ASR.TO), Ssr Mining Inc. (SSRM.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) and Kinross Gold (K.TO) gained 2.8 to 6%.

Village Farms International (VFF.TO) soared nearly 10%. Encana Corp (ECA.TO), Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) and staurant Brands International (QSR.TO) also posted strong gains.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) gained about 3.5%. The company reported net income of $618 million for the third quarter, down down 0.6% from $622 million in the same period in 2018.

U.S. stocks ended mixed. The Dow edged down 0.1% and the S&P 500 ended up 0.2%. The Nasdaq climbed 0.8%, benefiting from positive reaction to earnings news from Microsoft.

Traders were also digesting a slew of U.S. economic data, including reports on durable goods orders, new home sales and jobless claims.

European markets ended mostly higher. Asian stocks too ended broadly higher.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $0.26, or about 0.5%, at $56.23 a barrel.

Gold futures for December ended up $9.00, or about 0.6%, at $1,504.70 an ounce, the highest settlement in about two weeks.

Silver futures for December ended up $0.224 at $17.804 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $2.6680 per pound, down $0.0035 from previous close.