The Canadian stock market is up firmly in positive territory about an hour past noon on Thursday, riding on strong gains in materials, and consumer discretionary stocks.
Optimism about growth amid some upbeat economic data, and firm bullion prices are contributing to market's rise.
The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 156.50 points or 0.82% at 19,328.16 an hour past noon.
The Capped Materials Index is up 3.3%. Fortuna Silver Mines (FVI.TO), up 7.5%, is the biggest gainer in the section. B2Gold Corp (BTO.TO) is rising 7.2%, Silvercrest Metals (SIL.TO), Oceanagold (OGC.TO), Osisko Mining (OSK.TO), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.TO), Ssr Mining (SSRM.TO), Equinox Gold (EQX.TO) and IamGold (IMG.TO) are up 5 to 6.5%.
Among technology stocks, Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is gaining 3.3%, while CGI Group (GIB.A.TO), Photon Control (PHO.TO), Kinaxis Inc (KXS.TO), Enghouse Systems (ENGH.TO), Opex Text Corp (OTEX.TO) and Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO) are up 1 to 1.2%.
Consumer discretionary stock Martinrea International (MRE.TO) is surging up 7.6%. Magna International (MG.TO) is up by about 2.7%, while Gildan Activewear (GIL.TO), Brp Inc (DOO.TO) and Linamar Corp (LNR.TO) are up with modest gains.
Among healthcare stocks, Aphria Inc (APHA.TO) is down nearly 4%. The company said its shareholders approved the arrangement, pursuant to which Tilray will acquire all of the issued and outstanding Aphria shares.
Organigram Holdings (OGI.TO) is declining 3.3%, Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) is down 2.5% and Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO) is lower by about 1.4%.
According to the data released by Statistics Canada this morning, producer prices in Canada increased 9.4% in March over the same month in the previous year.
Manufacturing sales in Canada decreased 1.6% in February from 3.1% in January, another data from Statistics Canada showed.
Data released by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. showed private businesses in Canada created 634,800 jobs in March, after a revised 271,700 increase in February. The increase in March was the strongest in private employment since at least 2017.
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