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Roundup: Canadian stock market edges up as U.S. Fed keeps interest rates unchanged

Xinhua, September 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Thursday concluded slightly higher after the U.S. Federal Reserve Fed left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index added 23.38 points, or 0.17 percent, to close at 13,787.16 points, after slipping into a negative territory in the midday trading.

According to a statement released Thursday by the U.S. central bank after a two-day monetary policy meeting, Fed officials decided to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged as they believed that "recent global economic and financial developments may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term."

The TSX index moved higher when investors felt a little bit eased about a interest rate rise in a short time, which is considered as a negative impact on the commodities prices, as the stronger U.S. dollar boosted by the interest rate hike, in general, will make dollar-denominated commodities more expensive for investors.

Most of the eight major sectors followed the rising streak as resources shares, which are very sensitive to the changes of commodities prices, moved higher, with the energy sector going up 1.26 percent and the mining sector gaining 0.65 percent.

The most influential sector Financials, however, went down 0.82 percent and was the biggest loser in TSX when analysts believed that the Fed's statement Thursday continued to signal a hike before the end of this year.

"We continue to forecast a 25bps (basic points) rate hike in December ending the year at 0.25 to 0.5," according to a report issued by Scotiabank Thursday.

Most of the biggest banks in Canada declined in their stock prices Thursday, when Royal Bank of Canada lost 0.7 percent to 73.97 Canadian dollars (about 56.15 U.S. dollars) a share and Toronto-Dominion Bank dropped 0.94 percent to 52.64 Canadian dollars per share.

On the domestic economic front, Statistics Canada reported Thursday that the number of Canadians receiving regular unemployment benefits rose 7.1 percent or 36,100 in July on a year-over-year basis.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Thursday closed flat at 0.7591 U.S. dollar, when compared with the rate Wednesday. Enditem