Canada Stocks: TSX rise after Biden withdraws from US election race

Sleep Country Canada Holdings

22/07/2024 16:15

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      TSX up 0.26%
    

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      Real estate and utilities lead sectoral gains
    

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      Sleep Country Canada to be bought by Fairfax, shares jump
    

  
 (Updated at 10:21 a.m. ET/ 1421 GMT)
    By Nikhil Sharma
       July 22 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on
Monday as gains in the real estate and utilities sectors offset
losses in energy shares, while markets assessed the implications
of U.S. President Joe Biden's exit from the election race.
    At 10:21 a.m. ET (1421 GMT), the S&P/TSX composite index
 .GSPTSE  was up 60.06 points, or 0.26%, at 22,751.94.
    Wall Street indexes also edged higher after Biden on Sunday
ended his reelection campaign and backed Vice President Kamala
Harris as the Democrat presidential candidate against Republican
party's Donald Trump.
    Investors are also reevaluating their bets for Trump's win,
especially after the assassination attempt on the former U.S.
president last week.
    "As we go into November, it's really not going to matter who
the Democrats put forward, what's going to matter is the health
of the economy. And if that's trending lower, it only supports
Donald Trump," said Macan Nia, co-chief investment strategist at
Manulife Investment Management.
    In Canada, rate-sensitive real estate  .GSPTTRE  and
utilities  .GSPTTUT  indexes led the sectoral gains, rising 1.1%
and 1%, respectively. 
    The heavyweight energy sector  .SPTTEN  slipped as oil
prices came under pressure, with investors looking for hints of
an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September.  O/R 
    Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada's monetary policy decision is
due on Wednesday, with traders expecting the Canadian central
bank to trim borrowing costs again.
    After the recent benign datasets, including the inflation
and retail sales numbers last week, money markets are pricing in
a 93% chance of the BoC cutting the rate this week.  0#BOCWATCH 
    Among individual stocks, Sleep Country Canada's  ZZZ.TO 
shares rose 27.5% to top the TSX index after insurance-focused
conglomerate Fairfax Financial  FFH.TO  agreed to buy the
retailer in a deal valued at C$1.7 billion ($1.24 billion).

 (Reporting by Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya
Biswas)
 ((Nikhil.Sharma@thomsonreuters.com;))