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The main index of the Canadian Stock Market, the S&P/TSX Composite Index, closed higher for the second consecutive day and added 61 points or 0.35% to 17,358.21 on Wednesday. TSX healthcare index gained 3.6 per cent with Aurora Cannabis rising by 11.3 per cent. Technology index also rose, buoyed by 10.4 per cent increase in Lightspeed POS shares. Despite the plunging shares of National Bank of Canada and Royal Bank of Canada, which fell 1.1 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively, the financial index rose by 0.22%.
S&P/TSX Composite 5-day Price Chart (as on December 02, 2020)/ Source: EODHD/Others (Thomson Reuters)
The index featured a dividend yield of 3.4% and traded at a Price-to-Earnings (P/E) multiple of 19.80x at the close.
Investors largely focused on United Kingdom becoming the first nation to green lit to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination for public use, which will be rolled out from next week.
Stocks in Play*
Top Gainers: Aurora Cannabis Inc (up 11.3%), Lightspeed POS Inc (up 10.4%), and Martinrea International Inc (up 7.9%).
Top Laggards: Transcontinental Inc (down 5.4%), Ballard Power Systems Inc (down 4.6%), and Lundin Mining Corp (down 4.0%).
On Wall Street: Broader indices of the Wall Street traded in mix. The Dow Jones was up 59.87 points to 29,883.79, the S&P 500 index gained 6.56 points to 3,669.01 and the Nasdaq composite traded 5.74 points lower at 12,349.
Commodity News*
The news of vaccine rollout in UK uplifted oil prices, despite dissent among OPEC+ countries on supply cuts extension and buildup in the US oil inventories.
Brent oil futures increased 1.75% to US$ 48.25/bbl and Crude WTI traded 1.64% higher to US$ 45.28/bbl, respectively.
Gold futures traded 0.62% higher at US$ 1,830.20/oz on Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar reached its highest level since October 2018 on account of weakness in its US counterpart. Currency pair, USD/CAD traded 0.11% lower at 1.2918.
