Canadian Market Remains Firmly Up In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market is up firmly in positive territory in early afternoon trades on Thursday, buoyed by higher commodity prices and strong data on Canadian manufacturing activity.

The massive infrastructure investment plan announced by U.S. President Joe Biden also helped lift sentiment. Biden on Wednesday outlined a $2.3 trillion plan to reengineer the nation's infrastructure over the next eight years. "It's a once-in-a-generation investment in America," Biden said in a speech in Pittsburgh about his plan.

Materials and technology stocks are up with strong gains. Several stocks from consumer discretionary, energy, telecom and industrial sections are also notably higher, while healthcare and financial stocks are a bit subdued.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 166.80 points or 0.89% at 18,867.47 about an hour past noon.

In the materials section, MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), Eldorado Gold (ELD.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Lundin Gold (LUG.TO), Kinross Gold (K.TO), Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Novagold (NG.TO), New Gold (NGD.TO), Silvercorp Metals (SVM.TO) and Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO) are up 4 to 5.4%.

Among the gainers in the technology space, Photon Control (PHO.TO) is rising 5.2%, Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) is up 4.75% and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is gaining 4.2%, while Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) and Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) are up 2 to 3.5%.

In Canadian economic news, the IHS Markit Canada Manufacturing PMI rose to 58.5 in March from 54.8 in the previous month. The latest reading pointed to the 9th straight month of expansion in the country's factory activity and at the fastest pace in the survey's history.

According to a report from Statistics Canada, building permits in Canada increased 2.1% from a month earlier to an all-time high C$ 10.2 billion in February, against market expectations of a 1.4% fall. The value of non-residential permits jumped 14.2% to C$ 3.3 billion.