Canada Stocks: TSX posts biggest gain since August on fiscal stimulus measures

Celestica

21/11/2024 22:18

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      TSX ends up 1.4% at 25,390.68
    

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      Posts biggest gain since Aug. 8
    

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      Eclipses last Thursday's record closing high
    

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      Government proposes new spending measures
    

  
 (Updates for move in gold and investor quote)
    By Fergal Smith
       Nov 21 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index jumped to a
record high on Thursday, with energy and financial shares
leading broad-based gains as commodity prices rose and the
government proposed measures that could stimulate the economy.
    The S&P/TSX composite index  .GSPTSE  ended up 354.22
points, or 1.4%, at 25,390.68, its biggest gain since Aug. 8. It
 moved past the record closing high it posted last Thursday.
    Wall Street also notched gains as investors digested chip
company Nvidia's earnings report.
    "There was a lot of bearishness earlier in the year about
the prospects for the TSX but this record high ... it's a very
broad-based rally and that speaks to underlying strength," said
Elvis Picardo, a portfolio manager at Luft Financial, iA Private
Wealth.    
    All ten major sectors notched gains on Thursday as Canada's
Liberal government, which is trailing in the polls ahead of next
year's election, unveiled C$6.3 billion ($4.5 billion) in
proposed new spending measures to help consumers deal with high
prices.
    "The Canadian economy has been slowing down and I think that
can boost consumer spending," Picardo said. "It would impact the
economy in a positive way and consequently the banks."
    Financials, the most heavily weighed sector on the TSX, rose
1%, helped by a gain of 2.6% for Royal Bank of Canada  RY.TO .
    Manulife Financial  MFC.TO  said it will reinsure C$5.4
billion ($3.86 billion) of its reserves as it looks to transfer
some risk from its portfolio and free up capital for stock
buybacks. Its shares rose 1.4%.
    The technology sector climbed 2.2%, with shares of
electronics firm Celestica Inc  CLS.TO  jumping 5.1%.
    Energy advanced 1.8% as the price of oil  CLc1  settled 2.1%
higher at $70.19 a barrel. Industrials added 1.8% and the
materials group, which includes fertilizer companies and gold
mining shares, was up 1.3%.
    Gold  XAU=  benefited from safe-haven demand, climbing
0.75%.

 (Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Nikhil Sharma in
Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas, Alistair Bell and Diane
Craft)
 ((fergal.smith@thomsonreuters.com; +1 647 480 7446))