Canada’s main stock index edged up for an eighth straight session on Tuesday as utilities and industrials advanced but losses in energy stocks kept a lid on gains for the commodity-heavy bourse.
At 10:10 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 44.13 points, or 0.22%, at 20,322.41.
“We’re still setting up into the new month, so there’s a lot of volatility and a lot of positioning happening,” said Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at Purpose Investments.
“The higher moves in energy are fading little bit and we’re seeing some profit taking from some of the bounce that we got yesterday.”
The utilities sector added 0.6% and the industrial sector rose 0.6%.
The energy sector weighed on the index, slipping 0.5% after hitting a four-week high on Monday following the surprise oil output cuts announced by OPEC+ members.
The TSX had an upbeat start to the year, ending the first quarter in gains. Looking ahead, investors are expected to be taking cues from U.S. jobs data due later in the week for outlook on further interest rate hikes.
Among stocks, Thomson Reuters Corp rose 1.2% after the Reuters News parent said it would return $2.2 billion to shareholders through a cash distribution and a reverse stock split after selling some of its shares in the London Stock Exchange Group.
TD Bank Group fell 0.4% after some small shareholders told Reuters that the lender should abandon or renegotiate its $13.4 billion acquisition of First Horizon as the regional banking crisis has unearthed unknown risks.
Meanwhile, a Statistics Canada report showed that the value of Canadian building permits rose 8.6% in February from a 3.7% decline in January.
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