TSX Ends On Firm Note As Technology Stocks Rally

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended on a bright note on Thursday, riding on strong gains in technology shares and on positive cues from global markets.

Consumer staples, telecom and industrials shares were among the other notable gainers. Energy stocks were weak, while financial and real estate shares turned in a mixed performance.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index settled at 19,542.95, gaining 125.92 points or 0.65%, after scaling a low of 19,420.59 and a high of 19,582.36.

The Capped Information Technology Index climbed nearly 3%. Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) soared more than 15%. Lightspeed reported sales of $82.4 million for the quarter, a whopping 127% jump from the year-ago quarter. The company's adjusted loss in the fourth quarter was $0.09 per share, against an expected loss of $0.10 per share.

Tecys Inc (TCS.TO) gained 5.7%. Constellation Software (CSU.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) and Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO) gained 3 to 3.3%. Dye & Durham (DND.TO), BlackBerry (BB.TO), CGI Group (GIB.A.TO) and Descartes Systems (DSG.TO) also rose sharply.

Consumer staples Weston George (WN.TO), Sunopta (SOY.TO) and The North West Company (NWC.TO) gained 2.7 to 2.8%.

Among telecom stocks, Acuityads Holdings (AT.TO) rallied nearly 6% and Quebecor Inc (QBR.B.TO) gained 1.9%.

Ats Automation (ATA.TO), up 6.15%, topped the list of gainers in the industrials section. Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) and Tfi International (TFII.TO) gained 2.3% and 2.1%, respectively. Waste Connections (WCN.TO) and Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO) also ended with strong gains.

Data released by Automatic Data Processing Inc. showed Canada added 351,300 jobs in the month of April, much less than the addition of 634,800 jobs in the previous month, and below the expected addition of 500,000 jobs.

According to a report from Statistics Canada, Canada's new housing price index rose to 9.9% in April, compared with 7.9% in the same month last year. Month-on-month, the index rose 1.9% in April, from 1.1% a month earlier.