Canada’s main stock index rose on Wednesday as energy shares climbed on firm crude oil prices after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization, while investors braced for another aggressive U.S. rate hike.
At 9:57 a.m. ET, the resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 51.87 points, or 0.27%, at 19,420.56. The energy sector rose 0.9% as crude oil prices jumped more than 2% after Putin’s announcement raised concerns of tighter oil and gas supply.
“The situation in Europe is not going to go away anytime soon, which means there will be further tightening of global supply and commodities, so that should be positive for energy and natural gas and other materials that Canada exports but its not good news from an economy point of view,” said Greg Taylor, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments.
However, investors remained nervous ahead of an expected rate hike by the Fed at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), which will be followed by a news conference from Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Rate-sensitive technology stocks gained 0.7%.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended nearly 1% lower on Tuesday as the prospect of aggressive rate hikes by the Fed added to worries about the global economic outlook, even as data showed Canadian inflation eased again in August.
Inflation in Canada remains “too high” but is headed in the right direction, a Bank of Canada official said on Tuesday, adding the central bank will do whatever is needed to bring price increases back to target.
Teck Resources Ltd fell 4.8% on reporting plant outage at its Elkview steelmaking coal operation and saying initial estimates are that production will be interrupted for 1-2 months as repairs are implemented.
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