Toronto market makes strong gains on BoC outlook, U.S. markets up slightly

An optimistic growth outlook from the Bank of Canada and price spikes for key commodities helped Canada's main stock index surge higher Wednesday, while U.S. markets made mild gains.

The Bank of Canada left its trend-setting interest rate at 1.25 per cent as first quarter growth was slower than expected, weighed down by the housing market and sluggish exports.

But the bank said it's expecting the economy to rebound in the second quarter and full year growth is forecast at two per cent. It also said the economy is operating close to capacity and reiterated it expects further interest-rate hikes to be necessary over time.

The expected economic growth and rising oil prices both helped to prop up the Canadian market Wednesday, said Matthew Rodier, a portfolio manager vice-president at TD Wealth in Montreal.

"There's a few different factors. Positive sentiment from the governor of the bank of Canada, as well as crude inventories dropping, which was a surprise and led to the surge in the oil price."

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed up 176.67 points or 1.15 per cent at 15,529.97, led by gains of well over three per cent in base metals and energy sector indexes.

Both sectors were boosted by rising prices. The June crude contract closed up $1.96 at US$68.47 per barrel and the May copper contract was up eight cents to US$3.16 a pound.

"We saw crude prices go up close to $2 or almost three per cent, so that naturally has a positive effect on the TSX, being that energy is one of the major sectors, the major influencers. So we saw a bunch of the energy names and even the pipelines like Enbridge and TransCanada up quite nicely," said Rodier.

In New York, the S&P 500 index ended up 2.25 points at 2,708.64. The Nasdaq composite index was up 14.14 points at 7,295.24 and the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 38.56 points at 24,748.07.

The Canadian dollar averaged 79.28 cents US, down 0.39 of a U.S. cent in part because of the unchanged bank rate, said Rodier.

"The biggest driver these days in Canadian/US dollar and volatility there is short-term interest rates, and the expectation of interest rate increases, or lack thereof.

"In this case, there was a hold on the rate, and no assurance that in the next meeting they're certain to raise interest rates in Canada, whereas in the U.S. it seems there's a stronger likelihood that they will increase rates more than once for the balance of the year."

The June gold contract ended up $4 at US$1,353.50 an ounce and the May natural gas contract was unchanged at US$2.74 per mmBTU.

Commodity stocks weren't the only stocks to climb Wednesday, as Roots Corp. saw its share price climb almost 10 per cent to their highest levels since they were listed publicly last year after releasing positive results.

Roots announced its net income was $20.8 million or 50 cents per share for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3, up from $17.2 million or 41 cents per share in the same quarter a last year.