Canadian Market Up Firmly In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is up firmly in positive territory a little past noon on Friday, led by gains in industrials, financials and technology sectors. Consumer discretionary and healthcare stocks are among the other prominent gainers.

The mood in the market is positive amid easing concerns about U.S.-China trade tensions following China expressing willingness to hold tariff talks with the United States.

Data showing a much higher than expected increase in U.S. non-farm payroll growth in the month of April is also aiding sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which advanced to 25,016.05 earlier in the session, was up 167.34 points or 0.67% at 24,962.89 a few minutes past noon.

Bank of Montreal is up more than 1% on huge volumes. The counter has clocked a volume of about 2.87 million shares so far in the session.

Royal Bank of Canada (up 1%) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (1.1%) are also up on strong volumes.

Canadian National Railway is gaining more than 4%. Canadian Pacific Kansas City is rising 2.5%.

Aritzia Inc. shares are soaring more than 15%. Celestica Inc is rising 6.3%, and ARC Resources is up 3.6%. Bombardier Inc is gaining about 5.3% and Hut 8 Corp is up 4.5%. Teck Resources and Air Canada are also up with strong gains.

Magna International is down nearly 4%. Magna reported first-quarter earnings of $146 million or $0.52 per share, significantly higher than $9 million or $0.03 per share last year.

Fortis Inc., Alamos Gold, Kinross Gold Corporation and Great-West Lifeco are also notably lower.

Data from the Labor Department showed non-farm payroll employment shot up by 177,000 jobs in April compared to expectations for an increase of about 130,000 jobs.

The report also said the unemployment rate came in at 4.2% in April, unchanged from the previous month and in line with economist estimates.