March 24 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index jumped on Tuesday, as hopes of further stimulus measures from major economies, after U.S. Federal Reserve offered unlimited bond buying, helped shore up demand for riskier assets.
Although investors did not expect Fed's measure announced late on Monday to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, they hoped it could avert a global depression with the help of other state rescue packages. United States was also nearing a deal on a $2 trillion economic rescue package.
At 9:46 a.m. ET (1346 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite index .GSPTSE was up 705.94 points, or 6.29%, at 11,934.43.
A handful of Canadian legislators convened on Tuesday to give the government the power to inject billions of dollars in emergency cash to help individuals and businesses through the economic crunch caused by the new coronavirus outbreak. of the index's 11 major sectors were higher with all 229 components in the main index trading in the green and 39.04 million shares exchanging hands.
The energy sector .SPTTEN surged 6.6% as oil prices jumped 3%. O/R
Higher gold prices pushed the materials sector .GSPTTMT , which includes precious and base metals miners, up 6.3%. GOL/
The most heavily traded shares by volume were those of Bombardier BBDb.TO . Bombardier pulled its 2020 outlook and said it would halt all non-essential work at most of its Canada-based operations until April 26 to help slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. TSX posted no new 52-week high and no new low.
Across all Canadian issues, there were seven new 52-week highs and 31 new lows, with total volume of 63.17 million shares.