TSX Ends Sharply Higher As Stocks Rally After Powell Rules Out Aggressive Rate Hikes

(RTTNews) - After swinging between gains and losses and moving along the flat line till around mid afternoon, Canadian shares rallied sharply on Wednesday after Fed chair Jerome Powell ruled out aggressive rate hikes.

As widely expected, the Fed hiked interest rates by 50 basis points today and said another couple of similar hikes are likely after the upcoming meetings, but Powell's comments that the central bank does not plan to raise interest rates as aggressively as some had feared helped lift sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 279.67 points or 1.34% at 21,184.95.

Energy, healthcare, materials, real estate, industrials and financials shares were among the notable gainers.

MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) gained 3.4 to 8.5% on strong volumes.

Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX.TO) climbed 2.6%. The company reported first-quarter earnings of $438 million, or $0.25 per share, compare with $538 million, or $0.30 per share, in last year's first quarter. The company's revenue for the quarter fell 3.5% to $2.853 billion from $2.956 B last year.

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO) and Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC.TO) also ended sharply higher.

Paramount Resources (POU.TO) and Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) soared 12% and 10%, respectively.

IAMGold Corp (IMG.TO) plunged more than 25%. The company has revealed a costs blowout at its massive Côté gold project in Ontario, with preliminary estimates from an ongoing risk analysis indicating that development of the asset would require between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion to complete, as against an earlier estimate of between $710 million and $760 million.

On the economic front, data released by Statistics Canada showed Canada posted a trade surplus of C$ 2.49 billion in March of 2022, narrowing from an upwardly revised C$ 3.08 billion surplus in the prior month.

Exports from Canada surged 6.3% over a month to a fresh record high of C$ 63.6 billion in March, while imports jumped 7.7% over a month to a new record high of C$ 61.1 billion in the month.