Canada Stocks: TSX hits new high as Shopify surges, miners climb
CANADA STOCKS-TSX hits new high as Shopify surges, miners climb By Sudeshna Ghoshal
August 5(Reuters) - Canada's main stock index notched a fresh high on Wednesday, lifted by a surge in Shopify shares after the e-commerce company's revenue forecast exceeded estimates, while gains in gold prices lifted mining stocks.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite index .GSPTSE was up 1.6% by 10:15 a.m. ET, clinching a record high for the second straight session.
Shopify SHOP.TO led gains on the index and was on track for its biggest one-day gain in nearly a year, climbing over 15% after its upbeat revenue forecast signaled its AI efforts were drawing more merchants to its suite of e-commerce services.
The broader technology index .SPTTTK advanced 4.8%.
"Shopify is obviously a bellwether for tech in Canada... when these companies report good earnings ... it adds to this idea that tech companies are still doing well, that the AI spend is not stopping," said Allan Small, senior investment adviser of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth.
Thomson Reuters TRI.TO also beat second-quarter profit and revenue estimates and raised its annual revenue growth forecast, though its shares were down 1.3%.
Mining shares gained 4.8% as gold prices surged, after hopes of a U.S.-Iran peace deal tempered some inflation concerns.
NovaGold NG.TO, Eldorado Gold ELD.TO and Discovery Mining DSV.TO were up between 8.2% and 8.6%.
Six of the 10 major sectors on the TSX were trading higher.
Among individual stocks, iA Financial IAG.TO shares gained more than 4% after the insurance and wealth manager topped quarterly core EPS estimates.
Gran Tierra Energy GTE.TO jumped 49.3% after the oil and gas producer said it had agreed to sell its Colombian and Ecuadorean oil operations to France's Maurel & Prom MAUP.PA for $1.33 billion, including debt.
(Reporting by Sudeshna Ghoshal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)
((Sudeshna.Ghoshal@thomsonreuters.com;))