Equities in Canada’s largest market rose on Monday, buoyed by energy stocks as oil prices advanced on hopes of a coronavirus vaccine-aided recovery in fuel demand.
The TSX began the last full week of 2020 on an up note, gaining 48.18 points to 17,597.10.
The Canadian dollar surrendered 0.09 cents to 78.51cents U.S.
Canada's first COVID-19 inoculations are set to begin as soon as Monday after some of the 30,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived over the weekend, making Canada one of the few Western nations to start vaccinations.
British insurer Aviva PLC is selling its Vietnamese business to ManuLife Financial, it said on Monday, as it pushes ahead with plans to pull out
from its non-core markets.
ManuLife shares took on 11.5 cents to $22.93.
Scotiabank raised the target price on Capstone Mining to $3 from $2.50. Capstone shares acquired two cents, or 1%, to $2.10.
TD Securities cut the rating on Finning International to buy from action list buy. Finning shares gained 18 cents to $27.90.
TD Securities initiated coverage on Topaz Energy with buy rating and price target of $17.00. Topaz shares docked three cents to $13.90.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Osisko Gold Royalties which jumped 46 cents, or 3.2%, to $14.84, and
Enerplus Corporation, which rose seven cents, or 1.7%, to $4.32.
Ironically, rival gold miner Kinross Gold Corp fell 27 cents, or 2.9%, the most on the TSX, to $8.91, followed by Trillium Therapeutics, down 37 cents, or 2.4%, to $15.12.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange hiked 9.29 points, or 1.2%, to 789.59.
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground in the first hour, with consumer discretionary stocks triumphing 1.2%, utilities better by 0.9%, and real-estate ahead 0.7%.
The two laggards were energy, down 0.8%, and communications, off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Monday as Wall Street tried to rebound from a losing week. Investors were optimistic as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began and Washington appeared a bit closer to hatching some sort of stimulus this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 244.65 points to begin Monday at 30,291.02.
The S&P 500 picked up 32.55 points to 3,696.01.
The NASDAQ hiked 156.12 points, or 1.3%, to 12,534.39.
Boeing was the best-performing Dow component, rising 2.1%. The consumer discretionary grew 1.1%, and utilities picked up 1%, to lead the gains in the S&P 500.
A bipartisan stimulus plan could be introduced in Congress as soon as Monday, but split into two parts in order to improve its chances of approval. The $908-billion bipartisan plan would be split into a $748-billion measure with money for jobless and small business and another part that includes the controversial measures including liability protections and state aid
Following the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield signed off on the drug, allowing inoculations officially to move forward for people ages 16 or older.
The U.S. has begun to ship the doses from a Pfizer facility in Michigan to hundreds of distribution centers across the country. The FDA is also slated to publish its assessment on Moderna’s vaccine this week. The first dose of the vaccine was administered in New York state earlier on Monday.
Shares of stocks that stand to benefit the most from a vaccine and economic aid led the gains on Monday. Carnival rose 6.3%. American Airlines gained 3.5%.
The COVID-19 vaccine is being rolled out amid some of the darkest days of the pandemic in the U.S. More than 2,300 coronavirus related deaths were recorded Saturday, following over 3,300 deaths Friday. New infections continue to explode, with more than 219,000 cases reported on Saturday.
The Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, the central bank’s final meeting of 2020. Economists have speculated that the Fed could make changes to its bond program. The Fed is currently buying at least $80 billion a month of Treasurys, and Fed officials have discussed what they could do to change that program at their last meeting.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury dipped, raising yields to 0.92% from Friday’s 0.89%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 12 cents to $46.69 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid $12.20 to $1,831.40.
