Stocks in Canada’s largest centre rose to a four-month high on Friday as the heavyweight financials group climbed, while BlackBerry Ltd added to strong gains posted a day earlier as analysts raised price targets on the stock.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index leaped 61.83 points to greet Friday noon at 15,680.08, highest intraday since May 15 at 15,675.45.
The Canadian dollar dived 0.54 cents to 79.88 cents U.S
The gains put the Toronto market on track to rise 3% in September, its best month since July 2016.
Shares of BlackBerry climbed 5.3% to $13.69, building on a 12.7% advance on Thursday when the company reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profit.
Both RBC and CIBC on Friday raised their price targets on the stock.
Some of the most influential movers on the index were its bank shares.
Royal Bank of Canada climbed nearly 1% to $96.88 and Bank of Montreal gained 0.9% to $94.85.
Shares of Bombardier Inc rose 3.6% to $2.29 after the company sealed a deal to sell up to 50 Q400 turboprop planes to India's SpiceJet.
The World Trade Organization opened a dispute settlement panel to rule on Brazil's complaint that Canada has hurt its commercial jet industry by subsidizing Bombardier's CSeries jets, the Brazilian foreign ministry said.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped 220 percent preliminary anti-subsidiary duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets, while the company has also missed out on a merger of its rail unit with Germany's Siemens.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International gained 5.4% to $18.02 after the company completed the sale of Inova Pharmaceuticals to Pacific Equity Partners and the Carlyle Group.
Norbord Inc, which produces wood-based panels used in the construction of new homes, was down 5.1% at $48.76 after BMO cut its rating on the stock to underperform.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported the economy was essentially unchanged in July as 11 of 20 industrial sectors grew.
The agency’s industrial product price index rose 0.3% in August, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.
The Raw Materials Price Index increased 1.0%, primarily due to higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange held onto gains of 0.93 points to 777.05
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive by noon Friday, with health-care singing 1.7%, information technology clicking 1.5% higher, and financials richer by 0.7%.
The two laggards were materials and real-estate, each off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
The S&P 500 climbed to a record Friday, helped by gains in technology stocks on the last trading day of the quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrials remained lower by 6.1 points to 22,375.10. Apple and UnitedHealth were among the greatest contributors to declines in the Dow, while Goldman Sachs was among the greatest contributors to gains in the index.
The S&P 500 picked up 6.81 points to 2,516.87, information technology stocks led advancers, while energy stocks led decliners.
The NASDAQ added 35.38 points to 6,488.83
As of Thursday's close, the Dow was on track for third quarter gains of 4.8%, its eighth straight quarter of gains for the first time since 1997.
The S&P 500 was on pace for quarterly gains of nearly 3.6%, also its eighth straight quarter of gains. The NASDAQ was tracking for quarterly gains of 5.1%, its fifth straight positive quarter since 2015
In economic news, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation posted its slowest pace of annual increase since November 2015.
The personal consumption expenditures index, excluding food and energy, rose 1.3% in the 12 months through August, according to the Department of Commerce.
The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index unexpectedly rose to 65.2 in September. The final read on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan showed a slight decline from to 95.1 in September from 96.8 in August.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slumped, giving a slight lift to yields to 2.32% from Thursday’s 2.31%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped nine cents a barrel to $51.47 U.S.
Gold prices fell $1.80 to $1,286.90 U.S. an ounce
