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Canadian market close slightly higher

Xinhua, January 20, 2017 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Thursday finished marginally ahead on Wednesday, as gains in Industrial stocks offset losses in Health Care and Information Technology.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite ticked up 11.96 points, or 0.08 percent, to close the trading day at 15,409.81 points. Half of the ten sub-sectors finished the session higher.

Industrials group saw the largest gain on the day, rising 0.53 percent, after shares of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited rose 3.96 percent to 200.11 Canadian dollars (150.32 U.S. dollars) a day after their CEO announced his departure from the company five months before planned. The decision saw him give up 118 million Canadian dollars in benefits.

Also advancing in the industry were shares of Bombardier Inc. and Air Canada, moving up 1.13 percent and 0.89 percent, respectively.

Other groups to finish ahead on Thursday were: Materials (0.29 percent), Telecommunications (0.27 percent), Financials (0.17 percent), and Consumer Discretionary (0.01 percent).

Materials group finished higher as the spot price of gold made marginal gains on the day. The price for an ounce of gold ticked up 50 cents to close at 1,204.50 U.S. dollars, while the same weight of silver finished down 3 cents at 16.99 U.S. dollars. Shares of Toronto-based Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold miner, rose 1.17 percent to close at 22.56 Canadian dollars (16.95 U.S. dollars).

On the losing end, Health Care and Information Technology saw the biggest declines on the day, slipping 0.92 percent and 0.77 percent, respectively.

Health Care's dip was due four of the five group members losing ground on the day. Quebec-based pharmaceutical firms ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. saw the biggest dips on the day, with respective drops of 1.81 percent and 1.00 percent.

The TSX Information Technology group was hindered by a pair of Waterloo-based firms. Blackberry Limited and Open Text Corporation saw shares retreated 1.05 percent and 0.79 percent, respectively.

Other groups to finish in negative territory on Thursday included: Consumer Staples (0.43 percent), Energy (0.14 percent), and Utilities (0.07 percent).

Making news outside of the ten groups for a second straight day was Saskatchewan-based Cameco Corporation. The world' s largest publically traded uranium company saw a 10.15 percent boost on Thursday to 15.85 Canadian dollars (11.91 U.S. dollars) a share. This gain comes one day after shares plunged 16.92 percent after the company announced that their revised 2017 forecasts would see" significantly lower" earnings than expected due to recent decline in uranium price.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales in the month of November rose 1.5 percent to 51.8 billion Canadian dollars (about 38.9 billion U.S dollars). After a 0.6 percent dip in October, November saw 14 of 21 industries finish higher. The groups with the biggest increases were: Primary metal (9.1 percent), Petroleum and coal products (3.7 percent), and Wood product (3.8 percent).

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.29 cents to a three-week low of 0.7512 U.S. dollars. Endite