TORONTO: TSX was slightly higher as gains in Canadian National Railway’s shares boosted industrial stocks and steadying gold prices lifted precious metals miners.
At 9:41 a.m. ET (1341 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 12.22 points, or 0.08 percent, to 15,564.28.
CN Rail rose 1.2 percent, providing the biggest boost to Canada’s main index. The country’s largest railroad posted a fall in quarterly profit on Monday, but some analysts said its operational challenges were likely to ease this year.
Also boosting the index was a 3.7 percent increase in Restaurant Brands International Inc’s shares after the Burger King owner posted a better than expected profit.
Barrick Gold Corp and Teck Resources were among the stocks that lifted the materials index, which includes precious and base metals miners.
Centerra Gold was up 3.7 percent after Chaarat Gold Holdings offered to buy the company’s gold mine Kumtor, the largest in Kyrgyzstan.
Teck Resources shares were up 3 percent after the world’s second-biggest exporter of steelmaking coal reported higher-than-expected adjusted first-quarter earnings as sales volumes climbed.
Barrick Gold said it was done selling assets to cut debt and would instead use funds from future sales for growth or to pay dividends. Its shares rose 3 percent.
Gold steadied after three days of losses as the dollar stabilized off an earlier three-month peak and a rise in US Treasury yields stalled.
Seven of the 10 main index sectors were higher.
The TSX posted five new 52-week highs and no new lows. Across all Canadian issues there were 11 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Mitel Networks Corp, which rose 10.1 percent, after the company said it is selling itself to an investor group led by Searchlight Capital Partners for about $2 billion.
Prairiesky Royal, down 6.5 percent, was the largest decliner on the index.
Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume were Katanga Mining, Neovasc Inc and Aurora Cannabis.
Volume on the TSX index was 15.44 million shares. Total volume on Tuesday was 31.31 million shares.
Source: Brecorder
