(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market moved higher Thursday morning, extending gains to a fourth sessions, amid slightly easing worries about U.S.-China trade dispute and on hectic buying in the energy space thanks to a jump in crude oil prices.
Apart from energy shares, several key stocks from information technology, consumer discretionary and financial sections posted strong gains. Healthcare, consumer staples and industrial shares too moved higher.
Materials shares were weak, tracking lower gold prices. Shares from utilities and real estate sections were subdued.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 130.40 points, or 0.8%, at 16,402.01, a few minutes past noon.
On Wednesday, the index gained 88.06 points, or 0.3%, as it settled at 16,271.65.
Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO) topped the list of gainers in the Energy index, rising more than 7%. MEG Energy (MEG.TO) also gained 7%. Seven Generations Energy (VII.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Encana Corp (ECA.TO) gained 3 to 6%.
ARC Resources (ARX.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Shawcor (SCL.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) and Husky Energy (HSE.TO) also rose sharply.
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) reported a net profit of $3.248 billion, or $1.74 per diluted share for the third quarter ended July 31, compared to net profit of $3.105 billion or $1.65 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter. The stock was up nearly 0.5%.
CWB Financial Group (CWB.TO) shares gained about 1.5%. The group reported common shareholders' net income of $71 million and pre-tax, pre-provision income of $117 million, for the third quarter, up 14% and 6%, respectively, from the third quarter last year.
National Bank of Canada (NA.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) were up 1.4 to 2%. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) gained nearly 1%.
In economic news, Canada's current account gap widened by C$ 10.2 billion to C$ 6.4 billion in the second quarter of 2019 from a downwardly revised C$ 16.6 billion in the previous period and compared with market expectations of a C$ 9.8 billion shortfall.
U.S. stocks were up sharply amid easing concerns over trade. The Dow and the S&P 500 were both higher by about 1.3%, while the Nasdaq gained 1.5%.
European markets ended sharply higher, while markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance.
Crude oil futures were up $0.90, or 1.6%, at $56/68 a barrel.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng indicated China does not currently intend to retaliate against President Donald Trump's latest threat to raise the rate of tariffs on Chinese imports.
"We firmly reject an escalation of the trade war, and are willing to negotiate and collaborate in order to solve this problem with calm attitude," Gao said, according to a CNBC translation.
Gao claimed China has plenty of countermeasures it could impose but will instead focus on removing Trump's new tariffs, which were announced after China said it plans to impose tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods.
"The most important thing at the moment is to create necessary conditions for both sides to continue negotiations," Gao told reporters during a weekly briefing.
Trump later told Fox News the U.S. and China are scheduled to hold talks later today at a "different level," although he did not clarify what that means.
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