Stocks in Toronto rose steadily on Wednesday, helped by higher prices for oil and other commodities and by a surge in shares of Bombardier after the planemaker said Air Canada planned to buy 75 of its CSeries jets.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rocketed higher 238.32 points, or 1.9%, to greet noon at 12,793.30.
The Canadian dollar climbed 0.92 cents to 73.06 cents U.S.
Bombardier advanced 15.6% to $1.04. The company also said it would slash its workforce by about 7,000 over the next two years, with new hiring focused on the CSeries commercial jet program.
Air Canada declined 9.9% to $7.58. It reported a widening net loss and said its costs would fall this year if the Canadian dollar remains unchanged for 2015 levels.
The financials group gained ground, extending a rally after falling sharply earlier in the month.
Brookfield Asset Management Inc advanced 2.7% to $42.35. The infrastructure investor is planning a fresh $6.4-billion bid for Australian port and rail firm Asciano with Qatar's sovereign fund.
The biggest movers on the index included Royal Bank of Canada which rose 1.2% to $70.25, and Canadian Natural Resources, which advanced 5.9% to $29.50.
The energy group climbed, as oil prices rose on hopes that major producing countries would seal an agreement on freezing production following a key ministerial meeting in Iran, even though Tehran signaled a tough line.
Shares in e-commerce company Shopify gained 7.3% to $30.55 after posting strong quarterly results and 2016 forecasts.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that Canadians bought $17.4 billion of foreign securities in December, a second consecutive month of strong investment abroad. On the other side, foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $1.4 billion, led by federal government debt securities.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange jumped 5.38 points, or 1.1%, to 515.78
All but one of the 13 TSX subgroups advanced, with metals and mining barging ahead 10.2%, energy surging 5%, and health-care the better by 3.5%.
Telecoms, shedding 0.3%, proved the only laggard.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded higher Wednesday, trying for a three-day win streak, helped late morning by a rise in oil prices and some encouraging economic data ahead of the afternoon release of the Fed meeting minutes.
The Dow Jones industrial average popped 215.86 points, or 1.3%, to reach noon hour at 16,412.27, with Caterpillar leading advancers and McDonald's the only decliner.
The S&P 500 acquired 26.63 points, or 1.4%, to 1,922.21, moving above the psychologically-key 1,900 level in intraday trade for the first time since Feb. 5 and within 10% of its 52-week intraday high, out of correction territory on an intraday basis. Materials and energy led advancers.
The NASDAQ index spiked 78.06 points, or 1.8%, to 4,514.02,
Reuters, citing the Iranian oil ministry's official Shana news agency, quoted the country’s oil minister as saying he supports any effort to stabilize the market and prices. The Iran oil minister also said in the report the Tehran oil producers meeting was good.
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the minutes from its latest meeting at 2 p.m. ET.
In economic news, industrial production for January rose 0.9%, while capacity utilization was 77.1%.
U.S. producer prices unexpectedly rose last month, rising 0.1% after falling 0.2% in December. Excluding food and energy, PPI rose 0.4%
Housing starts fell 3.8% in January, while building permits fell 0.2%.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury faded, raising yields to 1.83% from Tuesday’s 1.79%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices picked up $1.87 a barrel to $30.91 U.S.
Gold prices took on $12.96 to $1,213.40 U.S. an ounce.
