Equities in Toronto caught a whiff of the success enjoyed by their blue-chip cousins to the south, and prospered Wednesday, due mostly to gains among consumer staples and banks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index finished stronger by 67.56 points to 15,269.66
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.15 cents to 79.53 cents U.S.
Consumer staples led the pack, as Restaurant Brands International recovered 74 cents to $74.97 as higher revenue at its Burger King group was offset by weakness in comparable sales growth at its Tim Horton coffee and donut chain.
Shares of Metro gained 11 cents to $42.51.
The financials group, which accounts for more than a third of the index's weight, gained as shares of Genworth MI Canada Inc jumped $1.28, or 3.5%, to $37.48 after the private-sector residential mortgage insurer reported quarterly earnings that sharply exceeded analyst expectations.
The country's biggest banks were also among the most influential gainers, with Royal Bank of Canada up 72 cents at $94.12 and Toronto-Dominion Bank adding 29 cents to $64.47.
Top gainers included oil services company Gibson Energy, which jumped 94 cents, or 5.8%, to $17.26, after saying it planned to sell its U.S. environmental services business. Analysts said that could raise between $90 million and $120 million that could be used to pay down debt.
Suncor Energy gained 79 cents, or 2%, to $41.15.
CGI Group fell $2.09, or 3.2%, to $64.26 after the IT services company missed profit estimates on lower margins and bookings as well as weakness in its European business. However, BlackBerry picked up two cents a share to $11.93.
Among health-care plays, Valeant Pharmaceuticals lost 39 cents, or 1.9%, to $20.62.
Gold issues slid, like Barrick Gold, ducking five cents to $21.54, while Goldcorp dropped six cents to $16.31.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up 1.04 points to 769.07
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher on the day, with consumer staples soaring 0.8%, financials and energy each better 0.5%
The four laggards were weighed most by information technology, slumping 1.2%, health-care, ailing 0.7%, and gold, off 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones industrial average notched another milestone on Wednesday, breaking above 22,000 for the first time.
The Dow improved 52.12 points to 22,016.04, with a boost from Apple's stock, which surged about 5% after posting quarterly results that blew expectations out of the water.
The company reported earnings per share of $1.67 on revenue of $45.4 billion. Analysts expected earnings per share of $1.57 on revenue of $44.89 billion.
It took the Dow 107 days to surge to 22,000 from 21,000. Boeing shares have had the biggest point impact on the price-weighted Dow, contributing 380.29 points since March 1, followed by McDonald's and UnitedHealth Group with 171.14 and 166.35 points, respectively.
The S&P 500 spend much of the day in negative country before inching up 1.22 points to 2,477.57
The NASDAQ faded 0.29 points to 6,362.65. The three major indexes have notched record highs this year largely in part because of strong quarterly results.
Shares of Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet and Netflix followed Apple higher
Wall Street also set its sights on key economic data. Private U.S. companies added 178,000 jobs last month, according to a report from ADP and Moody's Analytics. But economist expected an increase of 185,000 jobs.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell on the day, raising yields to 2.27% from Tuesday’s 2.26%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 35 cents to $49.51 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices slid seven dollars to $1,272.40 U.S. an ounce.
