TSX Ends Higher As Stocks Regain Some Ground On Bargain Hunting

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended modestly higher on Thursday as bargain hunting after recent sharp losses pushed up values of some frontline stocks.

However, the mood remained quite cautious amid rising concerns about the pace of economic recovery due to a second wave of coronavirus cases in Europe and the resultant fresh lockdown measures at several places.

A few top stocks from utilities, consumer staples, materials and information technology sections posted strong gains. Some stocks from the communications space moved up as well, while healthcare, energy, financial and industrial shares were mostly subdued.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 95.15 points or 0.6% at 15,912.26, after scaling a low of 15,724.95 and a high of 15,994.19 in the session.

Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO), MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO), Teranga Gold (TGZ.TO), Iamgold (IMG.TO), Lundi Gold (LUG.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Novagold (NG.TO), Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) and First Majestic Silver Corp (FR.TO) ended stronger by 5 to 7%.

ARC Resources (ARX.TO), Dollarama Inc. (DOL.TO), Husky Energy (HSE.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) also ended with strong gains.

Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO), Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO), Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO), Shopify Inc. (SHOP.TO), CGI Group Inc. (GIB.A.TO) and BlackBerry (BB.TO) were some of the prominent losers in the session.

Data from Statistics Canada said payroll employment rose by 739,700, or 5.1%, in July. In June, employment saw an inrease of 4.9%.

Meanwhile, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Canada were up 8.7% year-on-year in July 2020, after having increased by a downwardly revised 9.4% a month earlier. Compared to a month earlier, earnings were little changed at C$1,118 in July 2020.