Canadian Market Modestly Higher; Technology Stocks Move Up

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory Friday afternoon, led by gains in technology, communications and utilities sectors.

Slight optimism about U.S. and Iran reaching a deal to end the war in the Middle East contributed to the fairly positive mood in the market.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 137.13 points or 0.4% at 34,546.60 a few minutes ago.

The Information Technology Capped Index gained about 2% as several stocks gained in strength. BlackBerrye is up nearly 20% after FedRAMP re-certification strengthened its U.S. government software position.

Celestica Inc., is rising 4%. Lightspeed Commerce, Firan Technology Group, CGI Inc., Open Text Corporation and Descartes Systems Group are gaining 1%-3.5%.

In the communications section, Quebecor is gaining 2.75%. BCE Inc. is up by about 1.1%, while Cogeco Communications and Telus Corporation are up with modest gains.

Among utilities stocks, TransAlta Corporation, Superior Plus, Capital Power Corporation, Brookfield Renewable Partners, AltaGas and Canadian Utilities are up 1%-2%.

In economic news, data from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Canada's CFIB Business Barometer long-term index, which tracks 12-month forward expectations for business performance, dropped to 46.3 in May from a downwardly revised 58.0 in April. May's reading marks the lowest in a year.

Data from Statistics Canada said retail sales in Canada increased 0.6% month-over-month in April, according to a preliminary estimate. In March, retail sales increased 0.9%, higher than initial estimates of a 0.6% rise.

A separate data from Statistics Canada showed producer prices in Canada rose 2.0% month-over-month in April, following a 2.4% increase in March and exceeding market expectations of 1.3%. Annually, producer price inflation reached 11.4% in April, the highest since July 2022.