Stocks in Canada’s largest centre hiked at Monday’s open lifted by shares of financial firms, while energy companies got a lift as oil prices steadied after coming under pressure over the past month.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index found traction out of the blocks Monday, gaining 71.16 points to 15,263.70
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.16 cents to 75.54 cents U.S.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc said it appointed hedge fund manager and billionaire investor John Paulson to its board.
Valeant shares flew 64 cents, or 3.8%, to $17.44.
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on Prometic Life Sciences to $4.50 from $4.75. Prometic added a cent to $1.66.
Among information technology stocks, BlackBerry strengthened 20 cents, or 1.4%, to $14.10.
Consumer discretionary stocks were stronger, too, what with Canadian Tire gaining $1.22 to $148.89.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 2.95 points to 778.86
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups jumped in the first hour, with health-care up 1.6%, information technology ahead 1.1%, and consumer discretionary stocks up 0.9%
The lone laggard was in gold, down 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday as technology stocks tried to recover from a wobbly performance last week.
The Dow Jones Industrials galloped 84.34 points to 21,468.62, surpassing a previous all-time high of 21,391.97, which was set last week.
The S&P 500 tacked on 12.61 points to 2,445.86, with information technology rising 0.8% to lead advancers.
The NASDAQ propelled higher 62.65 points to 6,214.40.
Large-cap technology stocks like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet all rose approximately 1% in early trade.
Tech is by far the best-performing sector of the year, rising 17.2% in the period.
There are no major economic data due Monday, but Wall Street paid attention to remarks from a key Federal Reserve official.
Before the bell, New York Fed President Bill Dudley said the central bank inflation should pick up as wages rise along with continuing improvement in the labour market.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped off, raising yields to 2.18% from Friday’s 2.15%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 17 cents to $44.91 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices faltered $6.50 to $1,250.00 U.S. an ounce.
