TSX Ends Modestly Higher After Choppy Session

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended modestly higher on Friday, riding on gains in consumer staples, industrial and financial sections, even as the broad market remained somewhat subdued amid cautious moves by investors.

The market saw a somewhat lackluster session due to a lack of positive triggers, persisting worries about growth due to the impact of coronavirus pandemic, and sluggish commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 37.14 points or 0.23% at 16,222.46 after scaling a low of 16,143.15 and a high of 16,316.79 in the session.

Teck Resources Limited (TECK.B.TO) shares soared nearly 11%, with the counter clocking a volume of about 5.7 million shares.

Lundin Mining (LUN.TO) surged up 2.7%. Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) gained 1.25% and 1.1%, respectively. Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC.TO), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN.TO), BCE Inc. (BCE.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), which moved up by 0.7 to 1%, were the other stocks to rise on fairly strong volumes.

Nutrien (NTR.TO) rallied more than 4%. Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) and Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) gained 1.3 to 1.6%.

Among other strong gainers in the session, AutoCanada Inc. (ACQ.TO) rallied more than 8% and Empire Co (EMP.A.TO) moved up by about 6.75%.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO), Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO) and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and Kinross Gold Corporation (K.TO) lost 1 to 2.2%.

Data released by Statistics Canada a little while ago showed Canadian industries operated at 70.3% of their production capacity in the second quarter of 2020, down from 79.8% in the previous quarter. Expectations were for a capacity utilization of 70.2%. The 70.3% utilization was the lowest rate since the first quarter of 1987.