Equities rose on Canada’s main stock index on Friday, with information ?technology and ?consumer discretionary sectors leading gains, ?while investors ?assessed a stronger-than-expected ?domestic jobs ?report.
The TSX gained 60.4 points to open the week’s last session at 35,260.85. On the week so far, the index has shed 14 points, or 0.4%.
The Canadian dollar recovered 1.38 cents to 70.6 cents U.S.
In company news, industrial valve maker Velan posted an adjusted net loss in the first quarter as lower volumes and higher provisions hit profitability. Velan shares sagged in the first hour 44 cents, or 2.7%, to $15.76.
On the trade front, Prime Minister Mark Carney told a televised business forum that Saudi Arabia could help Canadian mining firms develop. He also met Amin Nasser, head of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, for talks deepening cooperation.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported employment was little changed in June (+18,000; +0.1%) and the employment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 60.8%.
The unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage points to 6.5%.
In May, the total value of building permits issued in Canada decreased $215.0 million (-1.7%) to reach $12.4 billion.
The decline in construction intentions was due to the non-residential sector (-6.1%) and tempered by the residential sector (+1.2%).
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange backpedaled 1.38 points to 896.96, first thing Friday, for a loss on the week so far of 41 points, or 4.4%.
Eight of the 12 subgroups were higher in the first hour of trade, led by information technology, up 1.4%, while consumer discretionary stocks were ahead 1%, and real-estate strengthened 0.5%.
The four laggards were weighed most by materials, shedding 0.9%, gold, down 0.8%, and health-care, doddering 0.6%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 87.26 points to 52,574.67.
The S&P 500 eked up 6.02 points to 7,549.66.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 87.26 points to 26,150.84.
Chip stocks were weak ahead of the U.S. debut of South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix on the Nasdaq Friday. The company, which exploded higher this year on the massive demand for memory, is pricing its American depository receipts at $149 each. Some traders worry the new offering may compete for investor funds with U.S. memory stocks like Micron Technology,
.
Micron shed around 3%, while Marvell Technology and Lam Research dropped more than 1%. Intel fell nearly 3%. Broadcom
was also among those trading in negative territory.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were stationery, keeping yields at Thursday’s 4.55%.
Oil prices lost 27 cents to $71.81 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices descended $30.20 to $4,110.60 U.S. an ounce.
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