Toronto stocks lifted by tech and mining stocks, strong US data

By Nikhil Sharma

(Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index rose on Thursday as technology and mining shares gained, while the investors celebrated the strong U.S. economic data that made a better case for a soft landing.

At 10:18 a.m. ET (14:18 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 141.39 points, or 0.61%, at 23,267.79.

The U.S. gross domestic product for the second quarter grew at a 3% annualized rate on higher consumer spending, quelling fears of an economic slowdown in the United States.

“This positive news has really solidified investors’ expectations for that optimistic soft landing scenario where you have a strong economy, and inflation that is trending lower,” said Candice Bangsund, vice president and portfolio manager, global asset allocation at Fiera Capital Corporation.

Investors are betting on a 25-basis-point reduction by the Federal Reserve next month; however, they will analyze the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure report on Friday to gauge the pace and magnitude of future rate cuts.

Meanwhile, the U.S. jobless claims fell slightly last week, indicating that the unemployment rate still probably remained high in August.

Canada’s information technology led the sectoral gains, rising 1.25%, supported by a 3.5% rally in electronics firm Celestica.

Canada’s materials sector rose 1.2% as it benefited from higher gold prices on amplified hopes of a U.S. September rate cut.

Capped communications and utilities sectors played the spoiler as they declined 0.37% and 0.43%, respectively.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s rose 5.7% to a two-year high after the lender beat third-quarter profit estimates, boosting the financial sector, which has 29% weighting on the index, by 0.9%.

Markets also assessed Nvidia’s quarterly forecast which failed to impress investors’ towering expectations, even though results were mostly as anticipated.

(Reporting by Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Vijay Kishore)