Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday, with broad gains led by telecom and tech shares, although U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent reciprocal tariff proposals limited the overall increase.
The S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) was up 0.2% at 25,618.60.
A majority of subsectors were trading higher, led by capped communication (.GSPTTTS) jumping 1.7%, helped by a 3.7% rise in Telus (T.TO) after the communications technology company’s fourth-quarter revenue beat market expectations.
Technology (.SPTTTK) also led the charge with a 1.7% jump, boosted by e-commerce company Shopify’s 3.7% gain.
Canada’s 10-year benchmark yield eased, tracking the U.S. counterpart, helping utilities (.GSPTTUT) and real estate (.GSPTTRE) add 1.2% and 0.8%, respectively.
However, Donald Trump’s plan to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday afternoon kept investors on edge.
“We’re going to be seeing a lot more volatility and uncertainty continuing in the market and I think everyone is walking on egg shells to try to figure out what is going to happen here,” said Shiraz Ahmed, senior portfolio manager and founder of Sartorial Wealth at Raymond James as he referenced Trump’s plans on reciprocal tariffs.
Financials (.SPTTFS) declined 0.5%, dragged by Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) falling 8.3% to the bottom of the TSX after Canada’s second-largest life insurer fourth-quarter profits missed expectations.
Kinross Gold (K.TO) shed 6.2% after the company reported fourth-quarter results, pulling the materials group (.GSPTTMT) down 0.6%.
Stateside, Wall Street main indexes moved higher on Thursday as investors parsed the latest producer prices data that rose slightly more than expected, suggesting inflation was picking up again.
Source: Reuters.com