By Fergal Smith
TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada’s main stock index rose to another record high on Monday, as technology shares climbed and investors who are upbeat on prospects for the global economy cheered the index’s heavy weighting in cyclical stocks.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 210.63 points, or 0.7%, at 29,971.91, eclipsing last Monday’s record closing high.
“It’s rinse and repeat almost every day for Canada lately,” said Mike Archibald, a portfolio manager at AGF Investments.
” It’s one of the best performing global markets. It’s got all the stuff you want if you’re constructive on coordinated global growth into 2026.
Sectors, such as financials, energy, materials and industrials tend to benefit particularly from stronger economic activity.
They account for 77% of the TSX’s weighting.
“It looks like GDP growth is going to be better next year than this year in many parts of the world, so in a backdrop like that having exposure to financials and commodities and industrials … is a thing of beauty,” Archibald said.
The materials sector, which includes fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, rose 1.1% as gold notched another all-time high and despite a decline of 4% for the shares of Barrick Mining.
The company appointed veteran executive Mark Hill as interim president and CEO following the sudden resignation of Mark Bristow.
Technology was up 2.8%, with e-commerce company Shopify Inc adding 6.2%.
OpenAI introduced a feature that would allow users to make purchases through ChatGPT, in partnership with Etsy and Shopify.
Shares of cannabis producers climbed after U.S. President Donald Trump advocated the potential benefits from the use of cannabidiol in senior healthcare in a social media post.
Curaleaf Holdings Inc jumped nearly 35%.
Energy was the only one of 10 major sectors to end lower, losing 1.5%. The price of oil settled down 3.45% at $63.45 a barrel on expectations that OPEC+ will approve another increase to crude oil production at its meeting on Sunday.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Daniel Wallis)
