As Middle East Tension Eases, TSX Reaches Record High

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market rallied higher on Tuesday posting moderate gains with investors returning to riskier assets, cheered by the news of a ceasefire between warring Israel and Iran.

The benchmark Canadian stock market index S&P/TSX Composite, today after opening at yesterday's close, dropped to day's low soon, but immediately gathered momentum to move upwards throughout the day.

Reaching an intra-day high of 26,780.19 an hour before close, the index managed to settle at 26,718.62, up by 109.26 (or 0.41 percent).

This is a new record high for the index. Notably, over the past 4 weeks, it has gained 2.3%.

The Middle East conflict between Israel and Iran which began on June 12th came to an end - at least for now - as US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Investors cherished this breather and moved away from safe-haven investments to riskier assets.

US Dollar, oil and gold prices fell today with stock markets picking reasonable gains.

On the economic front, data provided by Statistics Canada revealed that the annual inflation rate in Canada was at 1.7% in May, unchanged from last month, and in line with market expectations.

The Month-on-Month Consumer Price Index increased 0.6% in May.

CPI Median rose 3.0% year-on-year in May while the CPI Trimmed-Mean rose by 3% on a year-on-year basis.

This data will be factored in during Bank of Canada's policy meeting in July. If inflation continues to ease, rate cuts by BoC could happen as investors expect.

On the policy front, though the Canadian PM Mark Carney announced after G7 Summit that a trade deal with US will be reached within a month, so far no details on the negotiations have emerged.

Major sectors that gained in today's trading were IT (2.54%), Consumer Staples (1.09%), Financials (0.99%), and Consumer Discretionary (0.58%).

Among the individual stocks, Lightspeed Commerce (7.02%), Celestica (5.38%), Shopify (4%), and Metro Inc (1.51%) were the prominent gainers.

Major sectors that lost in today's trading were Utilities (0.18%), Healthcare (0.05%), Energy (1.48%), and Materials (1.66%).

Among the individual stocks, International Petroleum Corp (3.98), Oceanagold Corp (5.53%), SSR Mining Inc (5.42%), and Iamgold (5.15%) were the notable losers.