(Toronto) The Toronto Stock Exchange closed higher on Thursday on gains in the information technology sector, although activity was lower due to the Thanksgiving holiday south of the border.
The Toronto floor’s S & P / TSX Composite Index gained 64.75 points to end the session with 21,613.18 points, while US stock markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The tech sector advanced 1.14% and was the biggest contributor to Thursday’s advance. Companies that benefited from the upward move included cryptocurrency miner Hut 8 Mining, whose stock rose 6.13%, and supply manager software provider Tecsys, whose stock rose $ 4.95 .
Shopify stock also climbed $ 15.04, or 0.73%, to close at $ 2,075.04.
Kevin Headland, senior investment strategist at Manulife Investment Management, said Thursday’s positive performance could not be linked to any specific event or trigger, but rather was the result of an overall positive “foundation” under- underlying North American markets at this time.
“There’s no real material reason to explain anything today, I think it’s just a lot of digestion of the bottom line,” Headland observed. “And the volumes are pretty low, of course, which is not surprising given the holiday (in the US). ”
The energy sector advanced 0.33%, while the health sector advanced 0.78%.
On the downside, the materials sector lost 0.17% and the utilities sector slipped 0.06%.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 79.03 cents US, up from 78.88 cents US the previous day.
Headland said that so far, the markets had not reacted much to the announcement of the coordinated release of strategic oil reserves from the United States and other consuming countries like China, Japan, the ‘India, UK and South Korea.
“At the same time, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is still a little hesitant to turn on the taps,” he continued. “So oil seems to be in a very tight trading market and I think that’s what’s going to happen with the Canadian dollar as well. ”
The minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s November meeting on Wednesday showed the central bank remains concerned about inflation and remains willing to tighten monetary policy if the price index continues. to increase.
Mr Headland explained that he would check to see if U.S. investors appear fearful about it when they return from the Thanksgiving break.
“Yesterday, they seemed to ignore the minutes, but since they have time to digest (it), they could develop an opinion,” he said. “If we were to see a little lessening of this aggressiveness (on the part of the US Federal Reserve), we would see the market reacting positively. ”
The price of a barrel of crude oil fell 11 cents US to US $ 78.39, while that of natural gas fell 8 cents US to US $ 5.11 per million BTU.
The price of gold advanced 50 US cents to US $ 1,784.30 an ounce, while that of copper gained 4 US cents to US $ 4.46 per pound.