Canadian stocks slightly up on earning reports

Canada's main stock market in Toronto inched higher slightly Thursday as investors responded positively to a string of company profit reports and energy stocks mostly gained although crude oil prices extended losses.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 5.10 point, or 0.04 percent, to close at 14,551.64 points. Five of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors were higher.

Oil prices continued to fall on Thursday after data showed U.S. crude stockpiles gained unexpectedly, deepening market concerns on oversupply.

U.S. Texas light sweet crude for September delivery lost 0.78 U.S. dollars to settle at 41.14 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent crude for September delivery erased 0.77 U.S. dollars to close at 42.70 U.S. dollars a barrel.

TSX energy group climbed 1.11 percent despite a fall in crude oil, while the metal & mining group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, rebounded 4.85 percent.

The most notable gainers included Cenovus Energy Inc., hiking 6.69 percent to 18.67 Canadian dollars (14.19 U.S. dollars) after posting a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss, and First Quantum Minerals Ltd., which jumped 9.13 percent to 11.35 Canadian dollars.

Teck Resources Limited, the largest producer of steelmaking coal in North America, gained 6.60 percent to 20.19 Canadian dollars after reporting a surprise quarterly profit as its costs declined.

TransCanada Corporation rose 1.51 percent to 60.35 Canadian dollars after reporting a slightly higher-than-expected quarterly profit.

The biggest drags included Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc., the world's biggest fertilizer company by capacity, down 7.18 percent to 20.95 Canadian dollars after cutting its full-year profit forecast and dividend for a second time this year.

In financial sector, Royal Bank of Canada has taken the top spot among the big banks in an influential annual survey of customer satisfaction, knocking off Toronto-Dominion Bank, which had held the honor for 10 consecutive years.

According to the J.D. Power 2016 Canadian Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, RBC ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction among the five biggest Canadian banks, with a score of 765 on a 1,000-point scale.

On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings were 956 Canadian dollars in May, up 0.2 percent from the previous month. Compared with 12 months earlier, average weekly earnings increased 0.9 percent.

The Canadian dollar traded higher at 0.7598 U.S. dollar, compared with Wednsday's closing rate of 0.7581 U.S. dollar. Endit