Canadian stocks rise despite growth worries over wildfire

Canada's main stock market in Toronto rose up Friday despite worries over the massive wildfire in Alberta that may cause Canadian economic growth to stall in the second quarter.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index added 69.46 point, or 0.51 percent, to close at 13,701.47 points. Six of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors were higher.

Oil prices gained amid extended worries due to the wildfires in Canada's oil sands area. Current estimates are that anywhere from 900,000 to 1 million barrels of oil sands production have been suspended due to the fire.

The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery moved up 34 cents to settle at 44.66 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery increased 36 cents to close at 45.37 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

TSX energy stocks gained after oil turner higher, up 0.90 percent. Suncor Energy, which cut production this week due to wildfire, snapped a five-day losing run. Its shares rallied 2.05 percent to 33.84 Canadian dollars (26.20 U.S. dollars).

Gold issues also advanced as the most influential movers on the index included Barrick Gold, which rose 3.61 percent to 23.83 Canadian dollars, and Kinross Gold, which advanced 5.56 percent to 7.21 Canadian dollars.

Shares of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. rose 7.18 percent to 48.97 Canadian dollars. The engineering and construction company reported on Thursday a higher-than-expected profit for the first quarter as cost cuts helped margins amid lower spending by customers in its core energy business.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International fell 13.28 percent to 38.58 Canadian dollars. The company said on Thursday it has formed a new committee to oversee pricing of its drugs.

On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that the economy lost 2,100 jobs in April, leaving the unemployment rate at 7.1 percent.

Economists warned production cuts in Alberta's oil sands forced by a raging wildfire may cause Canadian growth to stall in the second quarter, predicting this would help keep the central bank on hold and weigh on the Canadian dollar.

"The situation remains fluid, and uncertainty remains about how long production disruptions will persist," economists at Royal Bank of Canada said in an economic comment released Friday. "However, if we assume those shutdowns last for two weeks, they would subtract 0.5 percent from May GDP."

Meanwhile, in the wake of Friday's national employment report, economists at BMO Financial cut their own second-quarter GDP estimate to zero from 1.5 percent amid the fallout from the Fort McMurray wildfires.

The Canadian dollar traded lower at 0.7741 U.S. dollar, compared with Thursday's closing rate of 0.7771 U.S. dollar. Enditem