Canadian Market Remains Positive; Energy Stocks Post Strong Gains

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is fairly well placed in positive territory Monday afternoon thanks to strong gains in the energy sector.

Technology shares are weak. Several stocks from materials and consumer discretionary sectors are also down in negative territory in largely cautious moves by investors, who look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, due on Wednesday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 96.86 points or 0.51% at 19,079.78, nearly 40 points off an earlier high of 19,119.04.

The Energy Capped Index is up 3.53%. Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO), Vermilion Energy (VET.TO), Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Birchcliff Energy (BIR.TO), Nuvista Energy (NVA.TO), Paramount Resources (POU.TO), Peyto Exploration and Development Corp (PEY.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) are up 5 to 7%.

The Information Technology Capped Index is down 1.51%. Sierra Wireless (SW.TO) is plunging more than 11%, Hut 8 Mining Corp (HUT.TO) is down 7.1% and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) is down 5.6%. Descartes Systems (DSG.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) are also down sharply.