TSX Ends On Firm Note

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market closed on a firm note on Tuesday, led by gains in materials section after gold prices hit a near 9-year high.

Real estate, utilities, industrial and financial shares were among the other notable gainers. A few stocks from information technology sector moved up as well. Energy and consumer staples stocks were a bit subdued.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which slipped to 15,319.44 in early trades, hit a high of 15,564.85 towards the fag end of the session before finally settling at 15,515.22, gaining 125.50 points or 0.82% for the session.

The index gained 2.12% in June. In the second quarter, the index notched up a gain of 16%, while during the six-month period from January to June 2020, it lost about 9%.

The Capped Materials Index climbed up more than 2%. Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO), Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO), Oceanagold (OGC.TO), Pan American Silver (PAAS.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO) and MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) gained 4 to 7.2%.

Kirkland Lake Gold (KL.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Alacer Gold (ASR.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO) and Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) also rose sharply.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), TC Energy (TRP.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), BRP Inc. (DOO.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Cargojet (CJT.TO), Kinaxis Inc. (KXS.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) gained 1.3 to 4%.

Among the losers, Nutrien (NTR.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Linamar Corporation (LNR.TO), Empire Co. (EMP.A. TO), Nutrien (NTR.TO), Loblaw Companies (L.TO) and George Weston (WN.TO) shed 1 to 2.3%.

Cineplex Inc. (CGX.TO) shares plunged nearly 19% after the company reported a loss of $178.4-million or $2.82 per diluted shares for the first quarter of this financial year loss in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $7.36 million of 12 cents per share a year earlier. Revenues decreased 22.4% to $282.8 million from $364.6 million as attendance plunged to 10.7 million from nearly 15 million.

In economic news, Canada's GDP plunged by 11.6% in the month of April over the same month in the previous year. In March, Canada's economy saw a contraction of 7.2%.