TORONTO: Canada’s main stock index rose on Monday, with financial and energy stocks leading a broad rally as investors returned to equity markets on rising expectations that Britain will vote to remain in the European Union later this week.
The Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX composite index settled up 113.37 points, or 0.82 percent, at 14,015.14. All 10 of its main groups gained, with advancers outnumbering decliners by 5.5-to-1.
That lagged the sharper gains seen in European indices, which jumped as recent momentum for the campaign for Britain to leave the EU showed signs of waning. The vote is due on Thursday.
“I still think you’re voting with the wind here, I don’t know which way this is going to go,” said Rick Hutcheon, president at RKH Investments. “It’s probably still too close to call.”
The most influential movers on the index included pipeline company Enbridge Inc, which added 2.1 percent to C$53.79, and Manulife Financial Corp, up 2.2 percent at C$18.37.
The energy group climbed 2 percent and financials gained 0.7 percent. Combined, the two groups account for 56 percent of the index’s overall weight.
Oil prices rose 3 percent, helped by the waning Brexit risk and in anticipation of peak summer driving demand.
Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest bank by market capitalization, rose 0.5 percent to C$78.01.
RBC plans further U.S. expansion following its $5 billion acquisition of Los Angeles-based City National in November, its chief executive said on Friday.
Canada’s biggest banks could absorb the direct effects of a severe housing crisis without catastrophic losses, ratings agency Moody’s said, as policymakers debate whether the country’s property markets are in bubble territory.
Gold miners were among the biggest drags, as the precious metal fell with other perceived safe-haven assets.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, gained 0.3 percent.
Kinross Gold Corp lost 2.2 percent to C$6.28. The miner suspended activity at its Tasiast mine in Mauritania after the West African country ordered expatriates whose work permits were invalid to stop working, a company source said.
OpenText Corp rose 2.8 percent to C$77.33 after the business software maker said it would buy HP Inc’s customer management software business for $315 million.
The value of Canadian wholesale trade rose far less than expected in April as activity increased in just three sectors, including the food and beverage industry, data from Statistics Canada showed.
