(Toronto) The Toronto Stock Exchange began the second half of the year with a broad rally that resembled that experienced by US markets on Friday, Canada Day.
Updated yesterday at 5:39 p.m.
The Toronto floor’s S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 167.50 points on Monday to end the session with 19,028.86 points.
U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Independence Day holiday, but were up about 1% by the last day of last week.
Key sectors of energy and materials dominated the Toronto market, where trading volumes were light, said Mackenzie Investments chief economist Todd Mattina.
“They’re the big leaders and, of course, they’re big components of the TSX, so those are two of the big driving factors,” he explained in an interview.
Markets are emerging from a very weak first half – the TSX ended its weakest quarter since before the pandemic – while US markets recorded their worst six-month period in decades, with fears that the rises could see interest rates push the economy into a recession.
Mr. Mattina does not expect the first-half weakness to persist throughout the year. In fact, he noted that there have already been some surprises for investors, with 10-year US Treasury yields falling in two weeks to 2.88% after peaking at 3.5%.
“Investors holding traditionally balanced stock and bond portfolios are once again enjoying some diversification benefits as bond yields have fallen over the past few weeks, so this has been a welcome sign I’m sure. for many investors. »
Toronto’s energy sector rose 2.7% as crude oil prices advanced on continued concerns about supply constraints caused by the war in Ukraine, reduced potential demand due to a economic slowdown and persistently high inflation.
The price of crude oil rose US$2.23 to US$110.66 per barrel, while natural gas rose 15.1 US cents to US$5.88 per million BTU.
The materials sector, for its part, rose by 2.2%. The price of gold rose US$6.80 to US$1808.03 an ounce and that of copper fell 3.7 cents US to US$3.57 a pound.
In the currency market, the Canadian dollar traded at an average rate of 77.72 cents US, up from its average rate of 77.60 cents US on Thursday.