The Canadian market remains in positive territory around mid afternoon, continuing to hold gains after having recovered from a weak start.
Healthcare, technology and industrials shares are up with strong gains. A few stocks from consumer discretionary sector are also up with impressive gains, while stocks from the rest of the sectors are turning in a mixed performance.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which climbed to a new high of 21,877.14, is up 66.17 points or 0.3% at 21,837.39.
The Healthcare Capped Index is up 2.85%. Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) and Well Health Technologies (WELL.TO) both are up more than 6%. Cronos Group (CRON.TO) is surging up 3.85%, Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) is rising 3.7%, Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) is up 2.6% and Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) is up 2.5%.
The Information Technology Capped Index is up nearly 2%. Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO) is up 8%. Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is gaining 5.5%. Converge Technology Solutions (CTS.TO), Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), Tecsys Inc (TCS.TO), Absolute Software Corp (ABST.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are moving up 3 to 4.5%.
On the economic front, Canada’s annual inflation rate quickened to 5.7% in February of 2022, the highest since August of 1991, slightly above market expectations of 5.5%, data from Statistics Canada showed.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 1.0%, beating market forecasts of a 0.9% gain and marginally quicker than a 0.9% increase in January.
Core consumer prices in Canada increased 4.8% in February of 2022 over the same month in the previous year.
Another data from Statistics Canada showed wholesale sales in Canada grew for the sixth consecutive month, increasing by 4.2% month-over-month to C$ 79.8 billion in January of 2022, compared to preliminary estimates of a 3.8% rise. Year-on-year, wholesale sales advanced 14.6%.