Bank stocks help Canadian market end week higher

Canada's main stock market in Toronto finished ahead on Friday, as US President Donald Trump' s intent to reduce banking regulations lifted stock prices of Canada's largest banks.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite climbed 77.28 points, or 0.50 percent, to end the week at 15,476.39 points. Seven of the ten sub-groups finished the day ahead.

Earlier on Friday, Trump signed an executive order to review the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that limited the banks from abusive borrowing to prevent another financial meltdown. As a result of the news, the Dow Jones Banks Index in the United States finished 2.57 percent higher.

North of the border in Toronto, the Financials group finished 0.80 percent ahead. Leading the way were the country' s largest banks, which all have operations south of the border. Bank of Nova Scotia shares rose 0.86 percent, while Bank of Montreal finished 0.78 percent higher. No.1 ranked Royal Bank of Canada shares saw the biggest jump among the banks, gaining 0.90 percent to close at 94.60 Canadian dollars (72.61 U.S. dollars).

Insurance firms Sun Life Financial Inc. and Manulife Financial Corporation also contributed to the group with respective increases of 0.82 percent and 0.81 percent.

The TSX IT Group also posted strong gains on the day, surging 0.86 percent to end a four session losing streak. Waterloo-based OpenText Corporation shares climbed 0.41 percent to 43.56 (33.44 U.S. dollars) after posting second quarter results that saw a 16.62 percent rise in revenues to a record 542.7 million U.S. dollars. Blackberry Limited also finished ahead, ticking up 0.33 percent to close at 9.11 Canadian dollars (6.99 U.S. dollars).

Other groups to finish the day in the green were: Industrials (0.54 percent), Utilities (0.43 percent), Consumer Discretionary (0.34 percent), Health Care (0.33 percent), and Consumer Staples (0.09 percent).

Consumer Discretionary, which consists of producers of non-essentials products such as automobiles, apparel and entertainment, was lifted by a Wall Street Journal report that retailer Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was in talks to takeover U.S. department store retailer Macy's. As a result of the news, shares of HBC surged 3.90 percent to 10.39 Canadian dollars (7.98 U.S. dollars).

On the losing side on Friday saw three groups with modest setbacks. Energy fell 0.10 percent, Materials slipped 0.04 percent, and Telecommunications inched down 0.01 percent.

The TSX Energy group fell as the price of crude oil and natural gas closed the week in different directions. Brent crude oil for April delivery rose ticked up 0.09 percent to 56.82 U.S. dollars a barrel, while March natural gas prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped 4.38 percent o 3.053 U.S. dollars per million British thermal units.

Calgary-based firms Encana Corporation and Baytex Energy Corp. were among the most actively traded stocks on the day. In the end, Encana shares fell 1.45 percent while Baytex gained 0.77 percent.

The materials group, which is made up of producers of gold, precious metals, and raw materials, inched down despite the price of gold reaching its highest point since mid-November. The spot price of bullion closed the week at 1,219.50 U.S. dollars an ounce, a 0.34 percent increase.

On the economic front, Toronto Real Estate Board reported that the average resale house in the Greater Toronto Area cost 770,745 Canadian dollars, a 22.30 percent year-over-year increase.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.17 cents to end the session at 0.7681 U.S. dollars. Endite