TSX Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended modestly higher on Tuesday, led by gains in energy stocks after oil prices rose sharply on hopes of an uptick in demand from China.

Several stocks from financials and materials sectors moved higher. Shares from utilities, consumer staples and communications sectors drifted lower.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 96.08 points or 0.47% at 20,725.00 after scaling a low of 20,541.59 and a high of 20,775.72 intraday.

The Energy Capped Index climbed 2.78%. Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Athabasca Oil Corp (ATH.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), Vemilion Energy (VET.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Paramount Resources (POU.TO) gained 4 to 6%.

Financials shares Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) gained 1 to 2%.

In the materials section, Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO) surged nearly 10% after the company received a favorable ruling from the US District Court, District of Nevada, for the appeal filed against the Bureau of Land Management for the issuance of the Record of Decision relating to the Company's 100%-owned Thacker Pass project located in Humboldt Country, Nevada.

First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) climbed 7.25%, and K92 Mining Corp (KNT.TO) gained 4.57%. Winpak (WPK.TO) rallied nearly 4%. Ero Copper (ERO.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Canfor Corp (CFP.TO) and Iamgold Corp (IMG.TO) gained 2 to 3%.

Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO) ended nearly 6% down. The company reported a net loss of $10.0 million for the third quarter, as against net income of $426.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

On the economic front, Canada posted a trade deficit of C$ 160 million in December 2022, down from an upwardly revised shortfall of C$ 220 million in the previous month.

Total exports fell 1.2% over a month earlier to C$ 63.0 billion in December, the lowest level since February 2022. Imports fell 1.3% to C$ 63.1 billion, the lowest level since March 2022.