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Canadian stocks extend 17-month high

Xinhua, November 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto continued to build on Monday's 17-month high as strong performances from mining stocks contributed.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index climbed 60.51 points, or 0.40 percent, to close the session at 15,100.38 points. Seven of the ten sub-sectors ended the session ahead.

After nine weeks of no gains, Toronto stocks have jumped 3.61 percent over the last eight trading days and is up 25.55 percent in the first eleven months of the year, reaching its highest point since June 2015.

Materials group, which feature producers of gold and precious metals, led the way on Tuesday with a 1.24 percent increase.

Price of gold ticked up 0.14 percent to 1211.50 U.S. dollars an ounce, while the same weight of silver rose 0.66 percent to 16.71 U.S. dollars. Outperforming the two precious metals on the day was copper, gaining 1.25 percent to 2.54 U.S. dollars per pound.

Toronto-based miners HudBay Minerals Inc and Lundin Mining saw shares soar 9.28 percent and 7.27 percent, respectively.

Industrials group jumped 0.99 percent after Bombardier Inc. shares grew 2.14 percent to 1.91 Canadian dollars (1.42 U.S. dollars) after being awarded an eight-year contract worth 331 million Canadian dollars (about 246 million U.S. dollars) to continue servicing the commuter rail network in the Greater-Montreal area with an annual ridership that exceeds 19 million.

Other groups gaining were Consumer Discretionary (0.83 percent), Consumer Staples (0.54 percent), and Information Technology (0.43 percent).

Among the laggards groups on the day were Health care (1.79 percent), Energy (0.27 percent), and Telecommunication (0.08 percent).

Health care's slump was attributed to respective declines of 4.87 percent and 2.68 percent to Laval-based drugmakers ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

Meanwhile, energy's dip was due to a slight drop in crude oil. January delivery of Brent ticked down 10 cents to 48.99 U.S. dollars a barrel.

On the economic side, Statistics Canada released September retail sales which rose to 44.4 billion Canadian dollars (about 33.0 billion U.S. dollars), a 0.6 percent month-over-month increase. Compared to the same month last year, sales are up 2.5 percent.

Seven of the eleven categories moved up in September, as Motor vehicle and parts dealers (2.4 percent), Gasoline stations (0.9 percent) and Building materials and garden equipment (0.7 percent) saw the biggest growth.

The Canadian dollar fell 0.0036 to 0.7433 U.S. dollars. Endite