Technology Stocks Lifting Canadian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is modestly higher around noon on Wednesday, led by gains in technology stocks.

Shares from the rest of the sectors are turning in a mixed performance amid cautious moves by investors, who are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision due later in the day.

The Fed is widely expected to hike interest rates by 75 basis points. Some analysts expect the rate to be hiked by as much as 1%.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 84% chance of a 75 basis points rate hike and a 16% chance of a 100 basis point rate hike.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 41 points or 0.21% at 19,409.69 a little past noon. The index climbed to a high of 19,476.43.

Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO), up nearly 8%, is the biggest gainer in the Information Technology Index. Converge Technology Solutions (CTS.TO) is gaining nearly 7%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO), Haivision Systems (HAI.TO), Telus International (TIXT.TO), Alithya Group (ALYA.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are up 2 to 4.3%. Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), CGI Group (GIB.TO) and Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO) are also notably higher.

Canadian Apartment Properties (CAR.UN.TO), Sprott Inc (SII.TO), Onex Corporation (ONEX.TO), Brookfield Infrastructure Corporatoin (BIPC.TO) and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (RBA.TO) are among the prominent gainers from other sectors.

Teck Resources (TECK.A.TO) is down 4.7%. The company said that there has been a structural failure of the plant feed conveyor belt at its Elkview steelmaking coal operation in the Elk Valley of British Columbia. It is expected that production at Elkview Operations will be interrupted for 1-2 months as repairs are implemented.

Teck expects the impact on 2022 steelmaking coal production will be in the range of 1.5 million tonnes, assuming a two-month suspension of plant operations.

Softchoice Corporation (SFTC.TO), Boralex Inc (BLX.TO), Jamieson Wellness (JWEL.TO) and Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO) are down 1.6 to 2.8%.