Energy Stocks Lead Significant Recovery On Bay Street

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply lower in early trading, Canadian stocks showed a significant recovery over the course of the trading session on Friday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the day up 31.00 points or 0.2 percent at 20,219.19 after falling as low as 19,997.33.

Concerns about the outlook for U.S. interest rates contributed to the initial weakness following the release of a report showing an unexpected acceleration in the annual rate of U.S. core consumer price growth.

The Labor Department report said annual growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, accelerated to 4.7 percent in January from an upwardly revised 4.6 percent in December.

Economists had expected the annual rate of growth by core consumer prices to slow to 4.3 percent from the 4.4 percent originally reported for the previous month.

Paul Ashworth, Chief North America Economist at Capital Economics, called the data "another sign that the Fed might have to leave its policy rate higher for longer."

Strength that emerged among energy stocks contributed to the subsequent turnaround, with the S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index surging by 1.9 percent.

The rally by energy stocks came as the price of crude oil rebounded after seeing early weakness. Crude for April delivery jumped $0.93 or 1.2 percent to $76.32 after falling as low as $74.09 a barrel in early trading.

Meanwhile, notable weakness remained visible among technology and healthcare stocks, with the S&P/TSX Capped Technology Index and the S&P/TSX Capped Health Care Index both slumping by 1.7 percent.