Canada Stocks: China hopes help lift Toronto market for fourth day

Iamgold

23/01/2024 21:28

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      TSX ends up 0.5% at 21,034.59
    

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      Posts its highest closing level in one week
    

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      Materials sector adds 2.1%
    

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      IAMGOLD jumps 15.1%
    

  
 (Updates at market close)
    By Fergal Smith
       Jan 23 (Reuters) - Canada's commodity-linked main stock
index rose to a one-week high on Tuesday as mining shares
rallied on hopes that China would take measures to support its
ailing economy.
    The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index
 .GSPTSE  ended up 110.29 points, or 0.5%, at 21,034.59, its
fourth straight day of gains and its highest closing level since
Jan. 15.
    "China is seeing very weak performance for a little while
now," said Diana Avigdor, portfolio manager and head of trading
at Barometer Capital Management. "If you think that China is
starting to see the other side ... I think that would be
positive for the commodity complex."
    Chinese authorities are considering measures to stabilize a
slumping stock market, it was reported on Tuesday, a day after
China's cabinet said it would step up mid- and long-term fund
injection in the capital market.
    The materials sector, which includes precious and base
metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 2.1% as copper and
gold prices climbed.
    Gold producer IAMGOLD Corp  IMG.TO  soared 15.1% after the
company reported fourth-quarter production figures after the
close on Monday.
    Energy also rose but gains were held in check by weaker oil
prices. The sector added 0.6%, while oil  CLc1  settled 0.5%
lower at $74.37 a barrel.
    Heavily weighed financials were up less than 0.1% but have
rallied about 19% since October.
    "We like the financials here. They are priced right,"
Avigdor said. "The economy is holding its own and that's why we
think it's priced right. ... It's priced in all the negativity
that it could."
    The Bank of Canada is due to update its economic forecasts
on Wednesday when the central bank is expected to leave its
benchmark interest rate unchanged at a 22-year high of 5%.     

 (Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Purvi Agarwal in
Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar and Richard Chang)
 ((fergal.smith@thomsonreuters.com; +1 416 941 8113))