TSX Ends On Strong Note

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks closed on a buoyant note on Thursday as investors indulged in strong buying in various sectors, reacting positively to fairly upbeat U.S. retail sales data.

Mirroring widespread buying, all the sectoral indices ended in positive territory, with stocks from real estate, industrials, materials, technology and utilities sections rising sharply.

Several stocks from healthcare, financials, consumer discretionary and energy sectors too posted impressive gains.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 288.90 points or 1.42% at 20,567.84, slightly off the day's high of 20,576.52.

Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.TO) climbed nearly 7%. Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO), Teck Resources (TECK.A.TO), FirstService Corporation (FSV.TO), Stella-Jones Inc (SJ.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) gained 3 to 3.5%.

Boyd Group Services (BYD.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Stantec (STN.TO), WSP Global (WSP.TO), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), Toromont Industries (TIH.TO) and Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) also posted strong gains.

Empire Company Limited (EMP.A.TO) gained nearly 3%. The company reported first quarter net earnings of $261.0 million ($1.03 per share) compared to $187.5 million ($0.71 per share) last year.

Among the losers, Dye & Durham (DND.TO) plunged 19%. Laurentian Bank (LB.TO) tanked 12.5%.

On the Canadian economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada rose by 0.2% month-over-month to C$81.3 billion in July 2023, compared to a preliminary estimate of a 1.4% gain and following a downwardly revised 2.1% drop in the previous month.

In U.S. economic news, a Commerce Department report showed retail sales in the U.S. increased by much more than expected in the month of August. The report said retail sales climbed by 0.6% in August after rising by a downwardly revised 0.5% in July. Economists had expected retail sales to inch up by 0.2% compared to the 0.7% increase originally reported for the previous month.