By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com - At 12:40 p.m in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was at 20,589.54 points, up 1.01% in the day’s trading, with all TSX sectors barring materials in the green as equities gained following yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting minutes.
While wider investor sentiment remains uncertain, driven by concerns of slowing economic growth, analysts note that increasing policy stimulus from China may also be helping keep markets balanced even as the world’s most powerful bank moves to aggressively tighten monetary policy.
Canada’s commodity heavy index was also buoyed by gains in Energy (+0.95%), which tracked the price of crude. The crude market is currently being supported by bullish inventory and consumption data in the U.S. and the prospect of an EU embargo on Russian energy hoped for by the end of the month. Supply concerns driven by these factors continue to outweigh the prospect of slowed demand following the delayed Chinese reopening.
Heavyweight financials (+1.30%) also helped buoy the sector, following earnings from RBC (TSX:RY), TD (TSX:TD), and CIBC (TSX:CM) reported before the bell. RBC reported net adjusted EPS of $2.99 in the quarter, compared with $2.79 a year earlier. and comfortably surpassing analyst estimates for $2.70 earnings per share. CIBC reported earnings of $1.77 per share, compared to analyst expectations for $1.80 per share. TD reported earnings per share of $2.02, compared t0 $2.04, a year earlier, and beating analyst estimates of $1.93 earnings per share.
Growth sectors including tech (+2.06%) and health care with its cannabis weighting (+3.40%) were amongst the best-performing sectors so far today.
The biggest gainers on the TSX today included Lightspeed (TSX:LSPD) (+9.42%), Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED) (+7.76%), Lithium Americas (TSX:LAC) (+7.64%), Nuvei (TSX:NVEI) (+6.71%) and Ballard (TSX:BLDP) (+6.61%).
Nutrien (TSX:NTR) (-2.24%), Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (-2.02%), Ero Copper (TSX:ERO) (-1.91%), Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI) (-1.90%), and Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX:AEM) (-1.61%) were amongst today’s biggest losers at midday on the TSX.