TSX Ends Marginally Up After Slightly Volatile Session

(RTTNews) - Despite spending much of the The Canadian market ended marginally up on Wednesday, with investors digesting quarterly earnings announcements, and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, and awaiting crucial U.S. non-farm payroll data.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which rallied to 21,911.32 around late afternoon after the Federal Reserve announced its monetary policy, declined sharply from there to 21,728.55, settling with a small gain of 14.01 points or 0.06%.

Utilities, financials and technology stocks gained some ground in positive territory, contributing to the market's higher close. A few stocks from the communications sector moved up as well. Healthcare, energy and consumer discretionary stocks closed weak.

Utilities stock Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN.TO) soared 11.5%. Boralex (BLX.TO) climbed 4.7%, while Brookfield Infra Partners (BIP.UN.TO), Innergex Renewable Energy (INE.TO) and Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN.TO) gained 2.2 to 2.7%.

In the financials sector, Sprott Inc (SII.TO), CDN Western Bank (CWB.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Brookfield Corporation (BN.TO) and EQB Inc (EQB.TO) gained 2 to 3%.

Among technology stocks, Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO) rallied 4%. Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Constellation Software (CSU.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO) and Hut 8 Corp (HUT.TO) gained 1.8 to 2.2%.

Cannabis stocks Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) and Canopy Growth Corp (WEED.TO) tanked 19.3%, 20% and 22.9%, respectively.

Energy stocks Baytex Energy (BTE.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Kelt Exploration (KEL.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Birchcliff Energy (BIR.TO) ended down 3.2 to 5%.

Consumer discretionary stock Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO) ended down 3.52%.

On the Canadian economic front, the S&P Global Canada Manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.4 in April, decreasing by 0.4 points from the previous month, marking the twelfth consecutive month of contraction in the nation's manufacturing activity.

The U.S. central bank left its interest rates unchanged as expected, citing a lack of further progress toward its 2% inflation objective in recent months.

Members of the Fed also reiterated they need "greater confidence" inflation is moving sustainably toward 2% before they consider cutting interest rates.

Meanwhile, the Fed said it would continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities but revealed plans to slow the pace of decline.

The central bank said it would slow the pace of decline of its securities holdings by reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion.