Canada’s main stock index closed up in a broad-based advance led by mining stocks while the loonie ended up moderately as economic growth numbers came in higher than expected.
Mining stocks were up as metal prices rose following a report that China and the U.S. could resume talks to resolve trade issues, said Brian See, vice president with CIBC Asset Management.
“Copper’s been quite strong, it’s up 1.5% at least today, and it’s more of a function of just there’s been headlines of the U.S. and China resuming trade talks because they’ve been embattled in this trade war,” said See.
The September copper contract closed up by US4¢ at US$2.83 a pound as the metal is heavily dependent on China’s continued economic growth.
“The potential of [China and the U.S.] coming back to the table should alleviate some of the fears, and at least potentially resume some of the global growth trajectory that we were originally on,” said See.
The S&P/TSX capped materials index was up by 1.17% to have the second strongest gains, behind only the health-care index, which climbed by 1.2%.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index, as a whole, closed up by 88.54 points at 16,434.01 as all sectors outside information technology climbed. The index closed at its trading high for the day.
Energy stocks were down during the day as the September crude contract closed down by US$1.37 at US$68.76 a barrel, but the energy index ended the day up by 0.28%.
Oil prices were under pressure as Russia exceeded its OPEC quota and Saudi Arabia also increased production, said See: “With that additional supply coming out on the market there’s just technically, at this point, more supply than demand leading some weakness in the price there.”
The S&P/TSX capped information technology index was the only one to end down for the day with a slight 0.06% decline.
Shopify was the main cause of the drag as it closed down $10.64, or 5.55%, to $181.22 to add to several days of declines. The drop was despite the company beating revenue earnings, although its pace of growth has slowed while losses increased.
Overall, the Toronto Stock Exchange saw 311.78 million shares traded on Tuesday.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up by 108.36 points at 25,415.19. The S&P 500 composite index closed up by 13.69 points at 2,816.29 and the Nasdaq composite index ended up 41.79 points at 7,671.79.
The Canadian dollar averaged US76.82¢, up by 0.02 of a U.S. cent, as Statistics Canada reported that the economy grew by 0.5% in May, higher than market expectations of 0.3%.
The September natural gas contract was down by US2¢ at US$2.78 per mmBTU. The December gold contract ended up by US$2.10 at US$1,233.60 an ounce.
WestJet Airlines Ltd. closed down by $1.63, or 8.17%, to $18.32 after reporting its first loss after 52 consecutive quarters of profits. The company reported a loss of $20.8 million in the second quarter and adjusted some of its 2018 expectations. The airline said its earnings were hit by the impact of a pilot strike threat, intensified competition and soaring fuel costs.