Business and Economy
Roundup: Canadian stock market rises as ECB hints further economic stimulus
(Photo from Lester Balajadia/Shutterstock.com)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock market in Toronto Thursday rebounded from a big slump in the previous day after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi hinted a further economic stimulus.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rallied 173.92 points, or 1.27 percent, to settle at 13,878.11 points, with gains across the board.
The index was buoyed after Mario Draghi’s remarks on Thursday, suggesting that ECB may unleash further stimulus in the form of bond buying.
Although there were no positive signs showing a recovery of the stagnant commodities prices, the crude market gained some momentum with the West Texas Intermediate for December delivery moving up 18 U.S. cents to settle at 45.38 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Resources shares closed higher with the mining sector up 3.46 percent and the energy sector climbing 1.95 percent.
Most of the miners rallied when the copper giants First Quantum Minerals Ltd. advanced 3.89 percent to 7.48 Canadian dollars (about 5.71 U.S. dollars) and Teck Resources Ltd. jumped 5.14 percent to 8.79 Canadian dollars.
The gold miner Barrick Gold Corp. added 1.32 percent to 9.97 Canadian dollars per share.
Meanwhile, Telecom rose 2.25 percent when Rogers Communications Inc. spiked 5.17 percent to 52.25 Canadian dollars after the Canadian telecommunication giant reported on Thursday that its profit spiked up 40 percent to 464 million Canadian dollars in the third quarter.
Other gainers included industrials and financials, up 2.08 percent and 1.19 percent respectively.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada said on Thursday that Canadian retail sales rose 0.5 percent to 43.6 billion Canadian dollars in August, driven by high sales of new trucks and alcohol.
The figure also beat market expectations for a 0.1-percent gain.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Thursday edged higher to 0.7630 U.S. dollar at 4 pm local time, when compared with 0.7612 U.S. dollar on Wednesday.
