Canada’s main stock index ends June on high note; loonie up ahead of holiday

Canada’s main stock index capped strong gains in June by rising Friday ahead of the holiday weekend. (Pixabay photo)

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index capped strong gains in June by rising Friday ahead of the holiday weekend.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 74.47 points to 16,382.20. Although the index was down nearly one percentage point on the week, it gained 2.2 per cent for the month and 15.2 per cent in the first half of the year.

U.S. markets likewise rose ahead of a meeting at the G20 between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

While some investors hope for positive signals about a resolution to the trade war between the world’s two largest economies, Erik Bregar, head of currency strategy at the Exchange Bank of Canada, is more doubtful.

“I feel like the market might get a whole lot of a nothing burger,” he said in an interview on the last trading day for the month in Canada.

“So long as we don’t get any major negative headlines out of Osaka (Japan), the dollar, gold, treasuries, stocks could kind of open up Monday where we closed out today.”

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 73.38 points at 26,599.96. The S&P 500 index was up 16.84 points at 2,941.76, while the Nasdaq composite was up 38.49 points at 8,006.24.

U.S. markets outpaced the TSX in June, with one day remaining in the month for U.S. trading.

Markets were up as much as 7.4 per cent for the month and between 15.3 and 21.6 per cent year-to-date.

Expectations of interest rate cuts by central banks in the U.S. and Europe has buoyed markets and caused the U.S. dollar to weaken and gold to strengthen.

“I still think this market is reeling from the big dovish turn from the Fed last week,” Bregar said.

“There was a lot of red on the screen the end of May but equity markets essentially betted on (Federal Reserve chairman Jerome) Powell coming to the rescue and he effectively has in his communications.”

Recent Canadian GDP, inflation and employment data point to economic conditions being not all that bad, which could affect the Bank of Canada’s upcoming rate decision, he added.

“I don’t think they’re going to have a gun to their head to ease rates like every other central bank is doing.”

The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.41 cents US, up from an average of 76.27 cents US on Thursday — a four-month high.

Ten of the 11 major sectors on the TSX were up on the day, led by consumer discretionary as Canada Goose Holdings Inc. gained three per cent and Aritzia Inc. was up 2.4 per cent. The materials sector followed closely behind with Yamana Gold Inc. and Centerra Gold Inc. increasing 2.8 and 2.2 per cent respectively.

The August gold contract was up $1.70 at US$1,413.70 an ounce. That’s a 7.8-per-cent gain for the month and up 10.3 per cent in the first six months of the year. The September copper contract was down 0.3 of a cent on the day at $2.71 a pound.

Crude prices were fairly flat until taking a tumble at the end of day after Europe said it will launch a channel to allow trade with Iran, bypassing U.S. sanctions.

The August crude contract was down 96 cents at US$58.47 per barrel and the August natural gas contract was down 1.6 cents at $2.31 per mmBTU.

However, the energy sector was up 0.27 per cent led by share gains from Frontera Energy Corp. and Encana Corp.

OPEC countries are meeting Tuesday with some members wanting the cartel to deepen production cuts in the second-half of the year.

“So if we get something like that, that could excite oil prices.”