Technology Stocks Shine As TSX Rises For 2nd Straight Day

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended on a strong note on Monday, led by gains in technology and healthcare sectors.

Stocks from real estate, consumer discretionary and energy sections too posted impressive gains.

The mood in the market was fairly positive amid rising expectations the central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada will slow the pace of interest rate hikes thanks to the drop in consumer prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 128.37 points or 0.63% at 20,631.58.

The Information Technology Capped Index surged 2.94%. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), up 8.77%, was the biggest gainer in the sector. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) and Quarterhill (QTRH.TO) gained 6.6%, 6.4% and 5.3%, respectively. Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO), Absolute Software (ABST.TO) and Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO) were among the other major gainers.

In the healthcare sector, Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) gained nearly 7%. Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) surged about 5%, while Cronos Group (CRON.TO) climbed 1.8%.

Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Colliers International (CIGI.TO), Goeasy (GSY.TO), Magna International (MG.TO) and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (RBA.TO) were among the prominent gainers from other sectors.

Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Rogers Communications (RCI.A.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO) and Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO) were among the notable losers in the session.

Data from Statistics Canada showed new home prices in Canada stalled from the prior month in December of 2022, holding the 0.2% decline in the previous month and compared to expectations of a 0.2% decline.

Canadian new housing prices rose by 3.9% year-on-year, the least since October of 2020, and slowing from the 4.1% rise in the previous month.