Equities in Canada’s largest centre rose on Monday as signs of progress in developing a COVID-19 vaccine renewed hopes for a post-pandemic economic rebound.
The TSX raced ahead 131.31 points to greet noon hour at 16,353.77.
The Canadian dollar acquired 0.04 cents to 75.90 cents U.S.
AstraZeneca said over the weekend it had resumed British clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development, after getting the green light from safety watchdogs.
Meantime, Canada is signalling it might not compensate major telecommunications providers, if the federal government bans
equipment made by China's Huawei from 5G networks, setting up a potential fight over a bill that could hit $1 billion.
The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were Torex Gold Resources, which jumped $1.91, or 9.6%, to $21.92, and Dundee Precious
Metals that rose 40 cents, or 4.2%, to $9.94.
Cineplex fell three cents to $8.36, while Enerplus Corp lost 9.5 cents, or 3.8% to $2.41.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 7.97 points, or 1.1%, to 741.34.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher midday, with gold ahead of the game 2.5%, health-care picking up 2.4%, while materials surged 2.3%.
Only energy missed the party, falling 1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Monday, led by tech, amid a slew of corporate dealmaking activity as the market tried to recover from its first back-to-back weekly declines in months.
The Dow Jones Industrials rocketed 370.44 points, or 1.3%, to break for lunch at 28,036.08
The S&P 500 climbed 56.54 points, or 1.7%, to 3,397.51.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ zoomed 246.4 points, or 2.3%, to 11,101.22.
Shares of Apple were higher by 2.8%. The market has been following in the footsteps of its rally leader. Apple shares are down 11% this month.
Tesla shares rebounded by more than 4%. The once-surging stock is down more than 25% in September after it failed to gain entry into the benchmark S&P 500, something investors were anticipating.
Tech sentiment was lifted by news of Nvidia buying chipmaker Arm Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion. Nvidia will finance the deal through a combination of cash and common stock. Nvidia was up 8%. Other chipmakers also gained, including AMD, Micron and Skyworks.
Meanwhile, ByteDance rejected Microsoft’s bid to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations. Instead, ByteDance has chosen Oracle to be TikTok’s U.S. technology partner, and Oracle will take a significant stake in the business, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Oracle shares were up 4.8%.
Outside of tech, Gilead said it will acquire Immunomedics to expand its cancer treatments. It was a $21-billion cash deal. Immunomedics shares doubled. Shares of Immunomedics more than doubled in price on Monday.
Sentiment also got a boost as AstraZeneca resumed phase three trials for its coronavirus vaccine in the U.K. following a halt for safety concerns.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury were unchanged, keeping yields at Friday’s 0.67%.
Oil prices doffed 25 cents to $37.08 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices moved higher $22.40 to $1,970.30 U.S. an ounce.
