TSX Ends On High Note On Vaccine Hopes

(RTTNews) - Despite paring two-thirds of its intraday gains, the Canadian stock market ended on a high note on Monday.

Positive news on potential coronavirus vaccine, and optimism about big U.S. fiscal stimulus following Joe Biden's victory helped keep the mood upbeat.

A sharp surge in crude oil prices triggered heavy buying in the energy space, contributing substantially to the market's strong close. Healthcare, real estate, consumer discretionary, financial and telecom stocks too posted handsome gains.

Shares from industrial and utilities sections also closed higher, while consumer staples, information technology and materials shares closed sharply lower.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which was up more than 430 points at 16,715.72 at one stage, ended the day with a gain of 193.03 points or 1.19% at 16,475.86.

The Capped Energy Index climbed 16.7%. Vermilion Energy (VET.TO) soared nearly 26%, MEG Energy (MEG.TO) and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) both ended almost 25% up, while Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Husky Energy (HSE.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO), Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO), Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) gained 16 to 23%.

The Capped Healthcare Index spurted nearly 6.75%. Bausch Health Companies (BHC.TO) and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) both gained nearly 15%. Aurora reported fiscal Q1 2021 total and cannabis net revenue of $67.8 million, a slight increase from the $67.5 million in the prior quarter.

Chartwell Retirement Residences (CSH.UN.TO) moved up 13% and Sienna Senior Living (SIA.TO) ended nearly 10% up.

Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO) gained about 4.5%. The company reported a second quarter loss of C$0.09 per share compared to profit of C$0.25, a year ago. Net loss attributable to Canopy was C$32.06 million compared to profit of C$258.92 million.

Among other big gainers, Air Canada (AC.TO) climbed 28.6%. Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC.TO) jumped nearly 11%, Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) rallied 5.8%, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) gained 5.7%, Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) moved up 4.3% and Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.TO) ended 3.4% up.

U.S. stocks ended on buoyant note, reacting to upbeat results from a phase 3 study of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX). However, technology stocks drifted lower.

Pfizer and BioNTech said an interim analysis of the results found the vaccine candidate to be more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior infection.

The Down ended stronger by 3% and the S&P 500 gained 1.2%, but the Nasdaq slumped 1.2%.

Markets across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region ended notably higher.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $3.15 or about 8.5% at $40.29 a barrel.