Equities in Canada’s largest market staged a comeback to begin trade on Wednesday, as buyers scooped up bargains, particularly in health-care and tech stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index regained 93.07 points to begin Wednesday’s session at 16,409.60
The Canadian dollar poked ahead 0.01 cents to 75.28 cents U.S.
National Bank of Canada resumed coverage on Theratechnologies Inc. with an outperform rating. Theratechnologies shares lost a dime to $13.31, while Valeant Pharmaceuticals gained 12 cents to $32.35. Elsewhere in the health-care sector, Aphria Inc. shot up 36 cents, or 3%, to $12.30.
The Senate on Tuesday approved a revised bill to legalize recreational marijuana, setting the stage for the country to become the first Group of Seven nation to legalize cannabis.
Among tech concerns, BlackBerry gathered nine cents to $15.88, and Constellation Software picked up $22.51, or 2.2%, to $1,055.00
In consumer staples, Restaurant Brands International increased in price 50 cents to $81.28, while Metro grew 40 cents to $44.18.
Bombardier Inc said on Wednesday that Delta Air Lines Inc has signed a purchase agreement for 20 CRJ900 aircraft, in a deal valued at about $961 million. Bombardier shares picked up seven cents, or 1.4%, to $5.12.
CIBC raised the target price on Canadian Pacific Railway to $280 from $270. CP shares gained 32 cents to $253.00.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 3.27 points to 754.56
All 12 TSX subgroups were higher, as health-care leaped 2.5%, information technology spiked 1.3%, and consumer staples gained 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks traded higher on Wednesday, boosted by dealmaking activity and potentially improving trade relations between the U.S. and the European Union.
The Dow Jones Industrials inched back 3.32 points to 24,696.89, with Boeing and J.P. Morgan Chase as the best-performing stocks in the index. The 30-stock index was also on track to snap a six-day losing streak, its longest since March 2017.
The S&P 500 gained 5.62 points to 2,768.21, with technology stocks outperforming.
The NASDAQ grew 45.49 points to 7,771.07
Disney raised its bid for Twenty-First Century Fox assets to $38 per share, or $71.3 billion, surpassing an offer made by rival and Comcast. Last week, Comcast bid $65 billion in cash for Fox assets which include FX, Star TV and stakes in Sky.
The bid sent Fox up 6.1%, and Disney shares higher by 0.4%. Comcast's stock also rose 0.2%
Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance rose more than 3% after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced it would replace General Electric on the blue-chip index.
Trade tensions among the largest economies in the world have increased recently as the Trump administration aims at obtaining more favorable trade deals and conditions for the U.S.
But investors got a reprieve Wednesday from the negative news on trade. The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. ambassador to Germany had met with the leaders of German car makers BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler, where they pitched the idea of ending car tariffs between the U.S. and the European Union.
During these talks, the executives said they would be in favor of scrapping these levies as part of a broader deal encompassing industrial goods, the Journal said.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, raising yields to 2.91% from Tuesday’s 2.89%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 82 cents to $65.72 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faltered $2.50 at $1,276.10 U.S. an ounce.
