Roundup: Canadian stocks climb up as resources rebound

Canada's main stock market in Toronto continued its rebound momentum since Jan. 20 as materials and energy issues recorded big gains on Wednesday.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index went up 35.83 points, or 0.28 percent, to close at 13,017.93 points. Half of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors moved higher.

Oil prices rose Wednesday as data showed the U.S. oil production continued to drop. The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery moved up 26 cents to settle at 34.66 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery increased 12 cents to close at 36.93 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

TSX mining and energy sectors were up 16.43 percent and 2.13 percent respectively. Among the most influential advancers, Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd. skyrocketed 1.43, or 27.55 percent, to 6.62 Canadian dollars (4.93 U.S. dollars) per share, while Canada's largest diversified mining company Teck Resources Ltd. soared 1.55, or 19.47 percent, to 9.51 Canadian dollars a share.

Baytex Energy Corp. added 13.66 percent to 3.01 Canadian dollars a share, Pengrowth Energy Corporation gained 13.46 percent to 1.18 Canadian dollars a share, while Texas-headquartered Caza Oil & Gas Inc. flew up 50 percent to 0.015 Canadian dollar each share.

Offsetting gains for materials, energy and utilities stocks, heavyweight financial companies posted losses. Manulife Financial Corporation was down 1.27 percent, and Toronto-Dominion Bank was down 0.30 percent.

Consumer staple stocks also dragged. Canada's largest food distributor Loblaw Companies Limited fell 1.01 percent to 69.45 Canadian dollars a share. Grocery retailer Loblaws is a division of Loblaw Companies, which also owns Canada's largest Asian food retailer T&T Supermarket.

It's happening again that Canadian drug store chain Rexall is set to be bought by U.S. health-services company McKesson Corp. in a 3 billion Canadian dollar deal. The Edmonton-based chain of 470 pharmacies announced the deal, in a release on Wednesday, that will see the company move to the hands of San Francisco-based McKesson, but keep operating under the names Rexall and Pharmaplus in Canada.

Meanwhile, Torstar Corp. will pour more money into the tablet version of its Toronto Star newspaper and expand in online community forums this year as it tries to offset sharp drops in print advertising with a greater focus on digital efforts.

The publisher, which reported weaker-than-expected results on Wednesday, said it planned to invest 10 million Canadian dollars in its Star Touch tablet edition in 2016 after spending slightly less than that in the fourth quarter. It expects the venture to break even in 2017.

South of the border, U.S. economic activity continued to expand in most districts from early January to late February but conditions varied considerably across regions and within sectors, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

A payrolls processor report also showed on Wednesday that U.S. private employers added 214,000 jobs in February, above economists' expectations, suggesting solid job growth despite market turmoil and worries about a slowing global economy.

U.S. manufacturers shed 9,000 jobs, which was the second biggest decline in five years, while the financial sector added 8,000 workers which were the fewest hires since August 2015.

The Canadian dollar was traded fractionally lower at 0.7448 U.S. dollar, compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 0.7455 U.S. dollar. Enditem