TSX Snaps 5-day Losing Streak, Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market ended modestly higher on Wednesday, led by gains in healthcare, technology and consumer discretionary sectors.

After opening on a firm note, the market pared some gains and moved slightly above the unchanged line till around mid afternoon when it briefly slipped into the red after the Fed announced a 75-basis point interest rate hike.

The Fed revealed that it has decided to raise the target rate for the federal funds rate by 75 basis points to 1.50 to 1.75%, marking the biggest rate hike since 1994.

The move comes as a recent report from the Labor Department showed consumer price inflation at the fastest annual rate in forty years.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 63.05 points or 0.32% at 19,611.56, after scaling a low of 19,383.69 and a high of 19,743.36 intraday.

The Health Care Capped Index climbed 3.05%. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) and Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) gained 5.4% and 5.1%, respectively. Cronos Group (CRON.TO) gained 3.8% and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) ended 2.4% up.

In the technology section, Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) climbed about 7% and 5.75%, respectively. BlackBerry (BB.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Softchoice Corp (SFTC.TO), Sierra Wireless (SW.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) and Magnet Forensics (MAGT.TO) gained 3 to 7%.

Consumer discretionary stocks Magna International (MG.TO), Martinrea International (MRE.TO), Linamar Corp (LNR.TO), Sleep Country Canada Holdings (ZZZ.TO), BRP Inc (DOO.TO) and Park Lawn Corp (PLC.TO) moved up 2 to 4%.

Real estate stocks First Capital, Dream Industrial, Killam Apartment, Riocan Real Estate and Summit Industrial Income gained 1.7 to 2.7%.

Energy stocks Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Suncor Energy (SU.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) declined sharply.

On the Canadian economic front, data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation showed housing starts in the country jumped by 8% over a month earlier to 267,330 units in April 2022.