Canadian stocks rebound on strong economic data

Canada's main stock market Friday rebounded following two-day losses as the strong economic data indicated a better-than-expected growth of the economy.
Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 67.56 points or 0.43 percent to 15,625.73 points, setting a new record close ever since 2008. S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index closed at 1,023.99 points, with a 1.83-percent gain during the week.
The market sentiment was boosted as Canada's quarterly economic growth hit a nearly three-year high, which was driven up mainly by an increasing export. Statistics Canada said Friday that real Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.8 percent in the second quarter, the largest quarterly gain since the third quarter of 2011.
Meanwhile, Canada registered a 1.6 billion Canadian dollars ( about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) budget surplus in June, compared to a surplus of 0.2 billion Canadian in the same period of 2013, according to the Finance Department of Canada on Friday.
Most of the eight major sectors drifted higher with the energy sector leading the increase by 1.07 percent.
Cenovus Energy Inc., a Calgary-based Canadian oil and gas company, rose 1.85 percent to 34.68 Canadian dollars, and anther energy giant Encana Corp. also rallied 0.97 percent to 25.07 Canadian dollars per share.
The mining sector rebounded 0.3 percent after a more-than-2- percent slump on Thursday, as its sub-sector gold group strengthened with S&P/TSX Global Gold Index up 1.5 percent. Most gold miners advanced, with the world's biggest gold miner Barrick gaining 1.22 percent to 19.99 Canadian dollars apiece.
In other sectors, Financials, the most heavily weighed sector, logged an increase of 0.26 percent. However, Utilities and Info Tech lost 0.49 percent and 0.24 percent respectively.
On the currency front, Friday did not witness a rise for the Canadian dollar over the strong GDP data, although it gained some momentum from the purchase by American fast-food giant Burger King of Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons at the beginning of this week.
The Canadian dollar closed lower at 0.9197 U.S. dollar on Friday, compared with 0.9219 U.S. dollar one day earlier.