TSX Ends Higher For 6th Straight Day

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended on a strong note on Friday, extending recent gains, amid easing concerns about interest rates and expectations about economic growth.

The soft inflation data from the Labor Department on Thursday has raised hopes the Federal Reserve will slow its pace of rate hikes in the coming months.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 148.90 points or 0.74% at 20,360.10, gaining for a sixth straight session. The index touched a low of 20,147.57 and a high of 20,379.95.

Technology stocks turned in a fine performance. Industrials, consumer staples and financials shares found good support. Stocks from other sectors ended mixed.

Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO), up 11.6%, was the top gainer in the Information Technology Capped index. Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) climbed 6.1% and Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO) surged 3.5%. Celestica Inc (CLS.TO), Quarterhill (QTRH.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) and Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) also ended sharply higher.

Industrials shares Bombardier Inc (BBD.B.TO), Waste Connections (WCN.TO), Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) and Gfl International (GFL.TO) gained 1.7 to 2.35%.

In the consumer staples section, Saputo Inc (SAP.TO) climbed about 3.25%. Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO) and Premium Brands Holdings Corp (PBH.TO) gained 1.12% and 1.02%, respectively.

Bank stocks Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) gained 0.7 to 1.2%.