Canada’s main stock index scaled to a fresh intraday record high on Tuesday, lifted by gold mining and energy shares, as gold prices hit new peaks.
Toronto’s commodity-heavy S&P/TSX composite index rose 0.2% to 30,021.01 points by 10:03 a.m. ET.
“Gold prices are just continuing to make all-time highs… gold [miners] have been carrying the load and will continue to do so,” said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth.
“The TSX is up close to 20% for the year. That is well above anything we’ve seen in a long time. Maybe long overdue because it has definitely underperformed its U.S. counterparts for years.”
Gold miners added 1.5% as the safe-haven asset hit a new record high of $3,790.82 earlier in the session. Perpetua Resources rose 1.2%, while Novagold and B2Gold were up 4.4% and 3.7%, respectively.
The energy sector gained 1.9% as oil prices rose. Vermilion Energy and Baytex Energy rose 4.5% and 3.9%, respectively.
Conversely, tech stocks came under pressure with heavyweight e-commerce company Shopify falling 3%.
Among other stocks, Lithium Americas dropped 2.7% after the Trump administration said it was re-evaluating a $2.3 billion loan for the development of a Nevada lithium deposit, according to a Bloomberg report.
MDA Space added 3% after the company announced a multi-year partnership with Ottawa Senators.
Kinross Gold rose 2.1% after selling a portion of its Asante Gold shares for C$73 million.
Meanwhile, Canada’s banking regulator said on Monday it wants the country’s biggest financial institutions to take “smart” risks to expand their lending and that it is open to capital rules adjustments to facilitate that goal.
American Dollar Exchange Rate