The Canadian market surged to a historic peak on Thursday, buoyed by robust advances in both the technology and materials sectors. A catalyst behind this uptick was the release of promising earnings reports from several high-profile U.S. tech companies, which spurred substantial buying activity in technology stocks. Concurrently, strong metal prices contributed to the rise in materials shares.
Besides technology and materials, sectors such as healthcare, utilities, real estate, and industrials also experienced significant gains.
Investors have been processing economic data from both the U.S. and Europe, alongside the European Central Bank's latest monetary policy announcement.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index registered an impressive gain, ascending by 334.95 points or 1.31% to conclude at 25,808.25, having reached a new record high of 25,875.61 during trading.
The Information Technology Capped Index rose by 3.45%. Notably, Celestica Inc (CLS.TO) soared almost 14.5% after reporting strong fourth-quarter earnings and revising its 2025 outlook upwards due to increased demand in the data center and AI sectors.
Sangoma Technologies (STC.TO) gained 5.5%, while CGI Group (GIB.A.TO), Bitfarms (BITF.TO), Open Text Corp (OTEX.TO), Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO), Coveo Solutions (CVO.TO), and Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) enjoyed increases ranging from 2% to 4.1%.
The Materials Capped Index saw a rise of 3.44%. Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO) surged 9.25%, while First Majestic Silver Corp (AG.TO), Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PASS.TO), and MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) registered gains between 7% and 8.1%.
Other notable performers included First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO), Seabridge Gold (SEA.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), SSR Mining (SSRM.TO), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO), Franco-Nevada Corp (FNV.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), and Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), all closing with significant advances.
Within the healthcare sector, Tilray Inc (TLRY.TO) climbed 7.3%. Transalta Corp (TA.TO), with a 6.2% increase, led the gains in the real estate sector. Industrial stocks such as Waste Connections (WCN.TO) and Finning International (FTT.TO) concluded with gains of 3.4% and 2.3%, respectively.
Prominent gainers in the real estate sector included HR&R Real Estate (HR.UN.TO), Granite Real Estate (GRT.UN.TO), Colliers International (CIGI.TO), and Northwest Healthcare Properties (NWH.UN.TO).
According to Statistics Canada, the average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in the country rose by 5% year-on-year to $1,285.91 in November 2024, marking the largest increase in five months, following a revised 4.2% growth in October.
A report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business indicated that the CFIB business barometer long-term index, which monitors 12-month business outlooks, dropped to 54.6 in January 2025, from 56.4 in December 2024.
