Materials, Bank Stocks Lift Canadian Market

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market, which moved higher after opening slightly up, remains in positive territory a little past noon on Monday amid slightly easing concerns about inflation thanks to a drop in oil prices.

The mood is a bit cautious as investors await a slew of earnings updates this week.

Bank stocks are finding good support ahead of the upcoming monetary policy announcement from the Bank of Canada. The Canadian central bank, which is scheduled to announce its policy on Wednesday, is widely expected to raise interest rate by 25 basis points.

The Federal Reserve, which is slated to announce its monetary policy on Wednesday, is expected to hold rates.

Materials stocks are up, supported by higher precious metals prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which climbed to 36,076.75, was up 170.21 points or 0.48% at 35,958.39 about half an hour past noon.

Materials stocks P5N Plus and Seabridge Gold Inc. are up 5.5% and 4.3%, respectively. Ero Copper, Methanex, Lundin Mining, First Quantum Minerals, K92 Mining, Trekor Metals, Teck Resources, Perpetua Resources, Capstone Copper, OR Royalties, Hudbay Minerals, Wheaton Precious Metals and Novagold are gaining 1.8%-4%.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia are up 0.7%-1.3%.

Among notable gainers in other sectors, Precision Drilling Corporation is up nearly 6%. Interfor is up 5.8%, while CAE, Enerflex, Western Forest Products, Celestica, Ensign Energy Services, Finning International, BlackBerry, Canadian Energy Services, Mullen, Badger Infrastructure Solutions, Toromont Industries, Aecon, Canfor, Air Canada, Quebecor, Paramount Resources and Mattr Corp. are up 1.5%-4.3%.

Tilray is down more than 4%. Dundee Precious Metals, Constellation Software, Equinox Gold, Ballard Power Systems, Thomson Reuters, Altus, Element Financial, Parex Resources, Kinaxis and Telus are down 1%-3.2%.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada increased to 0.5% in September from -1.6% in August.