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Soaring energy helps Canadian stocks surge to 17-month high

Xinhua, November 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto peaked to its highest point in 17 months on Monday, as energy prices continued to climb.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index climbed 175.84 points, or 1.18 percent, to close the session at 15,039.87 points. Eight of the ten sub-sectors advanced on the day with nearly four-fifths of all stocks finishing the day in the green.

After starting the year at the lowest point since June 2013, Toronto stocks have climbed 25.55 percent in the 11 months since to reach its highest point since June 3, 2015.

TSX Energy group was the biggest beneficiary on the day, gaining 3.20 percent as January Brent crude oil prices spiked 4.71 percent to 49.09 U.S. dollars for a barrel in London. Natural gas also contributed, jumping 4.26 percent to 2.964 U.S. dollars per million British thermal units.

Shares of Calgary-based energy firms Baytex Energy Corp. and Encana Corporation were the most actively traded during the session, rising 4.95 percent to 5.51 Canadian dollars (4.12 U.S. dollars) and 3.74 percent to 16.37 Canadian dollars (12.23 U.S. dollars), respectively.

Materials sub-sector, which consists of miners of gold and other precious metals, also benefited on the day, gaining 1.69 percent as spot price of copper gained 2.16 percent to 2.53 U.S. dollars a pound. As a result, copper miners First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and HudBay Minerals Ltd. shares shot up 7.17 percent and 5.07 percent, respectively.

Other subgroups that started the week in the green were industrials group growing 1.12 percent and financials group moving up 0.80 percent.

Information technology shares rose 0.21 percent as financial-technology firm DH Technology stock prices surged 11.0 percent to 16.15 Canadian dollars (12.06 U.S. dollars) after the Toronto-based firm announced plans to cut quarterly dividends by 62.5 percent to focus on growing the company.

On the losing end to open the week were Health Care and Telecommunications sectors, dropping 0.98 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that revenue from wholesalers in September fell 1.2 percent to 56.0 billion Canadian dollars (about 41.8 billion U.S. dollars), compared to August. By category, the biggest declines were in farm product (14.8 percent), agricultural supplies (9.0 percent), and metal services centres (8.7 percent).

Sales were down in all 13 provinces and territories, with Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec accounting for 82 percent of the total decrease.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.0067 to 0.7469 U.S. dollars. Endite