Canadian Stocks Finish Lackluster Session Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Monday but managed to end the day modestly higher.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing up 57.45 points or 0.3 percent at 18,918.40.

The choppy trading on Bay Street came amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates in the U.S. ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points next week, but traders are hopeful the central bank will indicate plans to slow the pace of rates hikes beginning in December.

The optimism partly stems from a Wall Street Journal report suggesting some Fed officials have expressed greater unease with the aggressive pace of rate hikes.

Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader market.

Industrial stocks showed a strong move to the upside, however, S&P/TSX Capped Industrial Index climbing by 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile, healthcare stocks saw substantial weakness on the day, dragging the S&P/TSX Capped Health Care Index down by 1.9 percent.