TSX claws back some April declines as sentiment improves

FILE PHOTO: The Art Deco facade of the original Toronto Stock Exchange building is seen on Bay Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

By Fergal Smith

(Reuters) -Canada’s main stock index rose on Monday, helped by gains for technology and financial shares, as investor sentiment showed signs of recovering after a rough period for the market since the start of April.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 64.59 points, or 0.3%, at 21,871.96, its fourth straight day of gains after it hit a near six-week low last Tuesday.

The index has declined 1.3% since the beginning of April, tracking losses on Wall Street, as investors grew more worried about Middle East tensions and the prospect of sticky inflation delaying Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

“We were oversold for sure. The sentiment in April has been really nasty,” said Barry Schwartz, a portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.

“April showers hopefully will bring some May flowers,” added Schwartz, referring to the saying about better conditions around the corner.

U.S. stocks rallied on Monday following a market sell-off in previous sessions as investors eyed a busy week for quarterly results from key companies that would provide a glimpse of the U.S. economy’s health.

The Toronto market’s technology sector rallied 1.2%, led by a gain of 5.2% for the shares of Celestica Inc after analysts at RBC and BMO raised their target prices on the stock.

Heavily weighted financials added 0.6% and industrials were up 0.9%.

The materials group, which includes metal miners and fertilizer companies, was the biggest drag. It ended 2.8% lower as gold gave back some of its recent record-setting rally.

Shares of Energy Fuels fell 10.1% after the uranium miner announced a deal to buy Australia’s Base Resources.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar and Deepa Babington)