TSX Rises As Technology, Materials Stocks Climb Higher

(RTTNews) - After a positive start and a subsequent drop into negative territory, the Canadian market moved above the flatline and remained firm a little past noon on Wednesday.

Technology stocks moved higher, contributing substantially to market's upmove. Materials and financials stocks also found good support, while consumer staples stocks were a bit weak. Stocks from other sectors turned in a mixed performance.

Despite ongoing concerns about the tensions in the Middle East, investors picked up shares, tracking higher metal prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 192.79 points or 0.57% at 33,977.73 a few minutes past noon.

Dye & Durham, up 11.2%, was the biggest gainer in the Technology Capped Index. Bitfarms surged nearly 10%, and Shopify gained nearly 6%. Celestica, Tecsys Inc., Lightspeed Commerce, Blackline Safety Corp., Open Text Corporation, Firan Technology Group and BlackBerry moved up 2%-3.5%.

Among materials stocks, Ssr Mining zoomed nearly 13%. Endeavour Silver Corp, G Mining Ventures, Vizsla Silver Corp., Aris Gold Corporation, Methanex, Ivanhoe Mines, First Majestic Silver Corp., Taseko Mines, Capstone Mining Corporation and Torex Gold Resources gained 3%-5%.

In the financials sector, Goeasy climbed nearly 4%. Sprott, Brookfield Asset Management, Igm Financial, Onex Corp., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Montreal, Manulife Financial, Bank of Nova Scotia, Brookfield Corporation and EQB gained 1%-2.5%.

George Weston Limited slipped nearly 4%. The company reported that its net earnings available to common shareholders fell to C$280 million or C$0.72 per share in the fourth quarter, from C$664 million or C$1.68 per share a year earlier, primarily reflecting the unfavourable year-over-year impact of a C$388 million fair value adjustment of the Trust Unit liability.

In economic news, data from S&P Global showed the S&P Global Canada Composite PMI recorded 47.1 in February 2026, up from 46.4 in January and remaining below the 50.0 no-change mark for a fourth straight month.

The manufacturing PMI for February came in at 51.0, up from previous month's 50.4, while services rose to 46.5 from 45.8.

Data from Statistics Canada showed Canadian business labor productivity rose 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2025, rebounding from a 1.0% decline in the second quarter, and beating expectations of 0.4% growth. The increase marked the sixth gain in eight quarters.