TSX climbs for second straight day, Nuvei hits 8-month high

By Johann M Cherian

(Reuters) – Canadas benchmark stock index rose for the second straight day on Thursday, tracking strength in its U.S. peers, while payment services provider Nuvei surging to its eight-month high also aided gains.

At 10:14 a.m. ET (1514 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchanges S&P/TSX composite index was up 26.67 points, or 0.13%, at 20,373.2.

Across the border, U.S. stock indexes gained after a sharp rise in weekly jobless claims eased some rate-hike concerns ahead of a key jobs report on Friday. [.N]

“The TSX is rallying because we finally got one job number that shows the impact of interest rates on the economy and maybe things are starting to slow in the U.S.,” said Barry Schwartz, portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.

“And the fact that the Bank of Canada did not raise interest rates also makes Canadian stock valuations more attractive.”

On Wednesday, the BoC kept its benchmark rate on hold at 4.50%, becoming the first major central bank to suspend its monetary tightening campaign in the face of an anticipated easing of high inflation.

The energy sector rose 1.7%, tracking crude prices that gained on supply disruptions in France. Materials rose 0.4%, tracking higher metals prices.

The rate-sensitive financials fell 0.7%.

Thus far in the year, the TSX has recuperated more than half of its losses in 2022. But in recent weeks, fears of further interest rate hikes by the Fed and a mixed bag of economic data from China marred investor sentiment.

Among individual moves, Linamar Corp slumped 8.8% after the auto parts manufacturer missed quarterly profit estimates, prompting a rating downgrade by Veritas Research.

Nuvei Corp led gains on the TSX with its 8.1% surge after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to “outperform” from “neutral”. The tech sector, housing the stock, jumped 2.1%.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)