TORONTO: Canada’s main stock index jumped more than 1 percent to a fresh two-week high on Monday, led by major oil and gas and mining stocks as commodity prices rallied.
The resource-rich Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index pushed higher with oil and gold prices buoyant on crude supply disruptions and a weaker U.S. dollar that also supported copper.
The most influential movers on the index included Suncor Energy Inc, up 2 percent to C$34.76, and Canadian Natural Resources, which added 1.8 percent to C$37.61.
Barrick Gold Corp advanced 2.5 percent to C$24.45, and Goldcorp Inc rose 3.7 percent to C$24.12.
The energy group climbed 2.4 percent, while the materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 2.6 percent.
At 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 147.14 points, or 1.07 percent, to 13,895.72.
It touched its highest level since May 2, with all but one of the index’s 10 main groups higher and six advancers for every decliner. Consumer discretionary stocks were barely lower.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc fell 3.3 percent to C$32.47 after it said would cut prices for hospitals on two heart drugs after shareholder William Ackman pledged to revisit controversial price hikes on the treatments.
The heavyweight financials group gained 0.3 percent, while industrials rose 0.7 percent.
Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent to their highest since November 2015 on the back of more disruption to supplies from Nigeria and after long-time bear Goldman Sachs said it was more positive about the market.
Supply disruptions have most likely pushed oil production below consumption levels in May for the first time in at least two years, meaning the world has started eating into the huge stockpiles of oil which knocked as much as 70 percent off crude prices between 2014 and early 2016.
Shares in Penn West Petroleum Ltd sank 8.6 percent to 96 Canadian cents a share after it said it may default on its financial covenants at the end of the second quarter and raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern.
Gold futures rose 1.3 percent to $1,287.8 an ounce, while copper prices advanced 1.2 percent to $4,683 a tonne.
