The sun seems to be shining on Canada’s main stock index again after a period of cloudy weather. The S&P/TSX Composite index has turned green in the last week or five days of trading, gaining 1.37 per cent at 2 p.m. ET after being in the red for weeks.

Similarly, the index has gained 4.09 per cent in the past one month. In the past three months, it has gained 0.44 per cent. Even though the index has lost 10.21 per cent since the beginning of the year and 10.00 per cent in the past year, its performance in the past one month has shown that it is reversing the losses recorded in recent times.

When the stock market opened this morning, the TSX index shot up immediately and continued on the upward swing for about the first thirty minutes of trading. The TSX, which closed at 18,918.40 on Monday, opened lower on Tuesday at 18,858.99. But it began a steady rise in early-morning trading. And by 10 a.m., it had gone beyond the 19,000 mark.

At 10:32 a.m., the index stood at 19,069.71, gaining 151.31 points, or 0.8 per cent.

The surge was led by the healthcare sector, which incorporates cannabis stocks, which experienced some boom in the day’s trading. The healthcare index shot up 6.9 per cent, boosted by cannabis producer Canopy Growth stock, which leaped 21.9 per cent following its plans to create a holding company to hasten its entry into the United States. It is anticipated that deal will give the company a leading market share in the United States once it is legally possible.

At 2 p.m., when the S&P/TSX Composite index stood at 19,059.94, with a gain of 141.54 points, or 0.75 per cent, the Canopy Growth Corp. had risen higher, maintaining its position as the best-performing stock of the day with a gain of 29.21 per cent. It was followed by Celestica Inc. with 17.51 per cent and Tilray Inc. with 13.53 per cent. The least-performing stocks at the same time of the day were NFI Group Inc. which was losing 6.14 per cent; Parkland Corp., losing 3.08 per cent; and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd., with 2.80 per cent.

At the same 2 p.m., across the southern border, the S&P 500 was also in green at 3,840.33, with a gain of 42.99 points or 1.13 per cent. The DOW was also in positive territories at 31,722.06, with a rise of 222.44, or 0.71 per cent. The bulls were also in charge at the NASDAQ, which rose to 11,134.16, with a gain of 181.55 points, or 1.66 per cent.

The loonie was also having a good outing against the American dollar, exchanging at $0.7335, with a gain of $0.0045, or 0.6228 per cent.

Crude oil was trading at US$85.36 per barrel, with a rise of $0.78, or 0.92 per cent.

Gold futures were also up, trading at $1,657.50 per ounce with a gain of $3.40, or 0.21 per cent.

Meanwhile, Canadians await the October 26 announcement by the Bank of Canada of interest rates, which are expected to go up as high as 50 or 75 basis points.

Statistics Canada recently released September inflation figures, which showed that even though inflation dropped marginally to 6.9 per cent, food prices continued to soar across the country. Foods bought from grocery stores in September rose in price by 11.4 per cent to a new 41-year high. This may affect the decision of the Bank of Canada in its announcement tomorrow as it continues with its fight to rein in inflation.

Market movers

BlackBerry’s (BB) SecuSUITE has been accredited for official NATO secure communications.  SecuSUITE protects against eavesdropping threats to government and business communications through end-to-end encryption, including standard mobile and VoIP phones.

Datametrex AI (DM) has received the third purchase order from Bitnine Global for approximately C$400K for the company’s NexaSMART.

Rock Tech Lithium (RCK) has signed a definitive agreement with Transamine Holdings and Investments Limited to form a joint venture entity, RTT Lithium SA.

Capital raises so far this week are The Limestone Boat Company, Salazar Resources, Portofino Resources, Li3 Lithium Corp., Capitan Mining, ALX Resources Corp., React Gaming, StrategX Elements Corp., and Aya Gold & Silver.


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