Equities in Canada’s largest centre edged higher in morning trade on Friday as materials stocks led a broad but shallow rally and some heavyweight financial shares slipped.
The S&P/TSX Composite advanced 15.85 points to greet noon in the final session before Christmas at 15,351.08, on track for a seventh-straight rising session and a 0.7% gain on the week.
The Canadian dollar sank 0.51 cents to 73.94 cents U.S.
One of the most influential gainers on the index was Barrick Gold, which advanced 1.9% to $19.40. Rival Iamgold Corp rose 2.1% to $4.48.
Shares of uranium producer Cameco Corp gathered 1.1% to $14.45 after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called for expanded U.S. nuclear weapon capability.
CGI Group added 1% to $63.74. The tech whiz said on Thursday it had signed a 10-year, $150-million deal to renew and expand its partnership with iA Financial Group.
Logistics software company Descartes Systems Group rose 1.1% to $28.36, having acquired trade data company Datamyne for $52.7 million in cash.
Among financials, several major banks and insurers weighed on the overall index. Sun Life Financial Inc slipped 0.7% to $51.81 and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd lost 0.9% to $662.24.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported the economy lost some steam during October, as gross domestic product was down 0.3%, after four straight upward months.
The agency said widespread decreases in manufacturing output and lower oil and gas extraction were the major contributors to the decline.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 5.55 points to 725.70
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher by noon, with gold spiking 2%, materials better 1%, and telecoms, up 0.4%.
The three laggards were energy, down 0.3%, consumer staples, off 0.2%, and financials, trailing 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. equities hovered around breakeven on Friday ahead of the Christmas holiday, as the Dow Jones industrial average tried again to reach the psychologically important level of 20,000.
The Dow settled 6.06 points to 19,912.82, with Microsoft contributing the most losses.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.12 points to 2,260.84, with health-care leading advancers and real estate the greatest laggard
The NASDAQ composite index added 1.17 points to 5,448.60
The three major indexes were on track to post slight weekly gains as of Thursday's close.
Trading volume in the U.S. has evaporated this week, as most investors and traders have left their offices in light of the Christmas holiday. U.S. markets will be closed Monday in observance of the holiday.
In economic news, consumer sentiment for December and new home sales data for November were both due this morning.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note were higher, lowering yields to 2.54% from Thursday’s 2.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eked up one cent to $52.96 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices gained $3.30 to $1,134.00 U.S. an ounce.
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