The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) rose on Friday, posting its fifth consecutive weekly increase as surging commodity prices pushed up natural resources shares and strong US economic data encouraged investors.
US consumer sentiment reached a 7-year high, and US October retail figures performed better-than-expected.
A 2.3% rise in the price of bullion plus a turnaround increase in oil prices helped energy and gold mining shares jump.
Investors looking for some quality assets that have received a beating recently, such as those of gold, oil and commodity producers, had a field day on Friday.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the day 0.44% higher at 14,843.10, posting a rise of 64.33 points. Of the ten main sectors that make up the index, seven rose.
The S&P/TSX Composite index has recovered since a sharp fall in October (Data source: Yahoo Finance)
Companies that stood out in the oil & gas sector were Encana Corp. (+2.4% to C$23.04) and Talisman Energy Inc. (+1.4% to C$6.41).
Gold-mining companies that did particularly well were Barrick Gold Corp (+5.5% to $13.83) and Goldcorp Inc. (+5.2% to C$23.04).
The Canadian dollar gained 0.78 of a cent on Friday, closing at 88.86 US$ cents amid strong Canadian manufacturing performance. According to Statistics Canada, factory sales increased by 2.1% in September to C$53 billion, after dropping by -3.5% in August.
US stock markets had an uneven Friday. The Dow Jones industrials fell by 18.05 points to 17,634.74, the S&P-500 index nudged up by 0.49 of a point to 2039.82, and the Nasdaq posted an 8.4 point-gain to 4,688.54.
European stocks were mostly higher on Friday, as economic data showed that Germany had avoided falling into a technical recession and France posted economic growth.
London’s commodity-heavy FTSE 100 ended the day -0.12% down, driven by steep losses in mining and energy stocks.
Asian stock markets overall declined on Friday on the latest Chinese data pointing to a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.
