(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended moderately higher on Monday, led by gains in information technology and materials sections.
Although the surge in coronavirus cases continued to weigh on sentiment, optimism about additional stimulus from global central banks and governments helped keep investor sentiment positive.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 60.18 points or 0.37% at 16,183.66, after scaling a low of 16,112.27 and a high of 16,201.72 intraday.
The Capped Information Technology Index climbed up 3.07%. Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO) soared nearly 8.5%. Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO) gained 4.4%, while BlackBerry (BB.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Absolute Software Corp (ABT.TO) and Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) ended higher by 3 to 3.7%. Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO) and Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) also rose sharply.
The Capped Materials Index advanced nearly 2%. Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO) zoomed more than 11%. Oceanagold (OGC.TO) and First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO) gained 9.85% and 9.2%, respectively.
Silvercorp Metals (SVM.TO), Semafo (SMF.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), Lundin Gold (LUG.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO), KInross Gold (K.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Alamos Gold (AGI.TO), Alacer Gold (ASR.TO) and Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO) gained 3 to 6.3%.
First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO), Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Rogers Communications (RCI.B.TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A.TO), Canopy Growth (WEED.TO) and TC Energy (TRP.TO) declined 1.4 to 3.5%.
U.S. stocks closed on a positive note. While the Dow ended just marginally up, the Nasdaq soared 2.5% to a new closing high, and the S&P 500 climbed 0.8%.
Positive results from trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, an Pfizer and BioNTech boosted sentiment.
The major European markets, except the U.K. market, also ended the day higher. Stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance.
In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $0.22 or about 0.5% at $40.81 a barrel.
Gold futures for August ended up $7.40 or about 0.4% at $1,817.40 an ounce.
Meanwhile, Silver futures for September moved up $0.428 or about 2.2% to settle at $20.192 an ounce, the highest settlement since August 2016. Copper futures for September settled at $2.9155 per pound, gaining $0.0110 or 0.4%.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
