Canadian stocks recover after 2-day slide over Brexit vote

(Photo: KMR Photography/Flickr)

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock market in Toronto rebounded Tuesday as crude oil prices showed signs of recovery after two days of losses following Thursday’s Brexit vote in UK to leave the EU.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 152.90 point, or 1.12 percent, to close at 13,842.69 points. All of the TSX index’s eight main sub-sectors were higher.

The August light sweet crude contract settled Tuesday with a gain of USD1.52 at USD47.85 per barrel and July natural gas was up 14.9 cents at USD2.89 per mmBTU.

Energy and bank companies on the TSX index, both of which had fallen heavily since Thursday’s vote, were leading the rebound as investors sought bargains amid the uncertainty created by the so-called Brexit.

The most influential movers included First Quantum Minerals Ltd., which rose 7.89 percent to 8.89 Canadian dollars (USD6.82), and Royal Bank of Canada, which advanced 1.57 percent to 76.38 Canadian dollars.

Gold miners, which had helped limit the TSX’s overall losses with strong gains on Friday and Monday, were among the heaviest weights, with Kinross Gold Corporation down 3.86 percent to 6.48 Canadian dollars and Barrick Gold Corporation slipped 2.64 percent to 26.87 Canadian dollars.

The August gold contract fell 6.80 to USD1,317.90 an ounce, after gaining more than USD60 since the Brexit vote. The September copper contract rose five cents to USD2.17 a pound.

Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier Inc. gained 4.97 percent to 1.90 Canadian dollars after Air Canada said it had finalized a deal to buy 45 of its CSeries jets with an option to purchase another 30.

Shares in Canexus Corporation recovered flat to 1.30 Canadian dollars. The chemical company said Canada’s antitrust regulator had approved its proposed buyout by rival Superior Plus Corp.

That approval came a day after US antitrust regulators filed a complaint to block the deal, saying the companies were two of the three manufacturers of a chemical needed to whiten wood pulp for paper production.

Shares in Superior Plus pared some early gains to close 0.39 percent higher at 10.29 Canadian dollars.

The Canadian dollar traded higher at USD0.7672, compared with Monday’s closing rate of USD0.7649.