(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended on a bright note on Wednesday after staying firm right through the session thanks to sustained buying in technology, materials and financial shares.
A rally in U.S. technology stocks triggered strong buying in Canadian technology shares, while strong results from Royal Bank of Canada and National Bank of Canada set up the stage for banking stocks. Gold's sharp uptick pushed up materials shares.
Optimism about progress in U.S.-China trade talks, positive news about coronavirus vaccine, and data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. durable goods orders lifted sentiment.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 172.49 points or 1.04% at 16,789.97, just below the session's high. The index touched a low of 16,611.41 in early trades.
The Capped Information Technology Index climbed up 3.34%. BlackBerry (BB.TO) surged up nearly 6.5%. Photon Control (PHO.TO), Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO), Docebo Inc. (DCBO.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO) and Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) gained 3 to 5.7%.
Absolute Software (ABT.TO), CGI Inc. (GIB.A.TO), Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO), Celestica Inc. (CLS.TO) and Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO) also rose sharply.
The Capped Financials Index climbed 1.73%. National Bank of Canada (NA.TO) shares rallied 4.3% after the bank reported third-quarter net profit of $602 million or $1.66 per diluted share compared with $608 million or $1.66 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) gained about 1.5%. The bank announced that it posted a profit of $3.20 billion or $2.20 per diluted share for its latest quarter compared with $3.26 billion or $2.22 per diluted share a earlier. Revenue totaled $12.92 billion, up from $11.54 billion in the same quarter last year.
CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) gained 2.7 to 3%.
The Capped Materials Index moved up 2.25%. Silvercrest Metals (SLV.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Novagold Resources (NG.TO), Terenga Gold (TGZ.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Pan American Silver (PAAS.TO), Silvercorp Metals (SVM.TO), MAG Silver (MAG.TO) and Oceanagold (OGC.TO) gained 3 to 5.4%.
U.S. biotechnology company Moderna (MRNA) announced promising results from a small trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate in elderly patients. Moderna told a government advisory committee that its experimental vaccine produced neutralizing antibodies and appeared to be well tolerated.
U.S. stocks closed on a firm note. The Dow hit a six-month closing high, rising 0.3%. The Nasdaq climbed 1.7% and the S&P 500 jumped 1%.
Asian markets ended mostly lower, while European markets closed higher.
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