By Fergal Smith
(Reuters) -Canada’s main stock index rose to a near three-week high on Wednesday as energy and technology shares led a broad-based rally after the Federal Reserve was less hawkish than some investors had feared.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 363.14 points, or 1.47%, at 25,069.21, its highest closing level since February 28 and its biggest advance since August 8.
“Certainly seeing a risk-on tone to the tape here,” said Mike Archibald, a portfolio manager at AGF Investments.
“The driver of this is the Federal Reserve not sounding as hawkish as potentially some were thinking.”
Wall Street also notched gains after the Fed kept rates unchanged as widely expected.
Central bank policymakers indicated they still anticipate reducing borrowing costs by half a percentage point by the end of this year in the context of slowing economic growth and, eventually, a downturn in inflation.
Technology was the biggest gainer among sectors, adding 3%, boosted by a 8.3% jump in the shares of e-commerce company Shopify Inc.
Energy was up 1.7% as the price of oil settled 0.4% higher at $67.16 a barrel.
Heavily weighed financials rose 1.2% and consumer staples ended 2.5% higher.
Shares of retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard climbed 6.3% after the company reported quarterly results.
Its CEO said a no non-disclosure agreement had been signed over potential stores needed to be sold by the Canadian company and Japan’s Seven & i to meet U.S.
antitrust conditions for a deal.
The materials group, which includes metal mining share, ended 0.9% higher as copper prices climbed and gold moved to a fresh record high.
Healthcare was the only one of 10 major sectors to end lower, losing 1%.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas, Leroy Leo and Alistair Bell)
