Equities in Canada’s biggest market managed doggedly to hold onto gains Wednesday, although failing energy prices limited those gains.
The S&P/TSX Composite maintained a gain of 17.17 points to close Wednesday at 14,366.27, after Tuesday’s collapse of nearly 250 points.
The Canadian dollar eased off 0.07 cents to 75.77 cents U.S.
EnCana led energy stocks lower, dipping 21 cents, or 1.7%, to $12.43, while Baytex Energy doffed four cents to $5.30.
Financials also stubbed their toes, as TD slumped 34 cents to $56.99, and Royal Bank shed seven cents to $80.11.
Consumer staples powered the majority of gaining groups, as Metro added 11 cents to $42.78, while Alimentation Couche-Tard grew $1.08, or 1.7%, to $64.06.
Among health-care issues, Cynapsus Therapeutics gained 29 cents to $52.94.
In the tech world, Intrinsyc Technologies Corporation eked up a cent to $1.67.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 5.18 points to 802.35
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups were positive on the day, as consumer staples acquired 1%, health-care climbed 0.9%, and information technology grew 0.7%
The lone laggards were energy, listing 0.8% lower, and financials, subtracting 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Equities south of the border closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with energy weighing, as oil prices fell sharply despite bullish inventories data.
The Dow Jones Industrials settled 31.98 points, to 18,034.77, on top of a dive Tuesday of nearly 260 points, with American Express leading decliners and Apple the top riser.
The S&P 500 hesitated 1.25 points to 2,125.77 with energy leading eight sectors lower and information technology and utilities as the only advancers.
The NASDAQ Composite recouped 18.52 points, however, to 5,173.77, as Apple progressed 3.6%.
In corporate news, German drug and crops chemicals firm Bayer agreed to buy Monsanto for $66 billion U.S., or $128 per share. Monsanto's stock was up about 0.6%.
Data released Wednesday included import prices for August, which fell 0.2%. Economists had forecast import prices slipping 0.1% in August. In the 12 months through August, import prices fell 2.2%, the smallest decrease since October 2014, after declining 3.7% in July.
Import prices have been reined in by a strong dollar and cheap oil. That, together with sluggish wage growth, has left inflation persistently running below the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained, lowering yields to 1.7% from Tuesday’s 1.72%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices dropped $1.29 at $43.61 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices added $2.20 at $1,325.90 U.S. an ounce.
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