TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market was lifted Thursday by financials and consumer staples stocks, while winter outerwear company Canada Goose soared during its initial public offering.

The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 41.50 points to 15,562.41, with about half of the major sectors finishing to the positive.

Coat maker Canada Goose (TSX:GOOS) made its market debut in Toronto and New York with an offering of 20 million shares priced at $17 per share. By the end of the session, the stock had risen nearly 27 per cent to finish at $21.53 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The company's public offering was valued at $340 million.

South of the border, stock indexes were holding steady, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced it was hiking its short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 0.75 to one per cent.

The move by the central bank was widely anticipated, as it noted that it still plans on staying the course with raising rates only three times this year. There was speculation in the financial markets that four increases may be possible given how much the economy and inflation have picked up.

Tim Morton, an investment adviser at TD Wealth, says the Fed's decision that now was a good time for another hike will likely continue to buoy stock markets.

"If interest rates are going up and tightening because they see strength in the economy, that's historically been good for markets," he said.

Still, Morton noted, there remains the unknown factor of U.S. President Donald Trump and how his policies will affect financial markets when they are put into place.

"A huge focus of the market is whether the gains are truly a result of a Trump rally that's been propelling us upward and forward, or whether there is more to it," he said.

"I think it's more about the (economic) numbers coming through."

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 15.55 points to 20,934.55, the S&P 500 index lost 3.88 points to 2,381.3.8, and the Nasdaq composite index was relatively flat, ahead by 0.71 of a point to 5,900.76.

The Canadian dollar was trading at 74.92 cents US, down 0.23 of a U.S. cent.

Gold was a big gainer amid a soft greenback, as the April bullion contract rose $26.40 at US$1227.10 an ounce.

In other commodities, April crude was down 11 cents at US$48.75 per barrel, April natural gas slipped eight cents at US$2.90 per mmBTU, and May copper was up two cents to US$2.68 a pound.