Canadian Stocks Climb As Trade Talks Revived

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks rose on Monday, buoyed by the announcement by the Finance Ministry that US-Canada trade talks have been renewed with an aim toward clinching a trade deal sooner.

After opening higher than the last session, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, today inched up its way to reach a record closing high of 26,857.11, up by 164.79 (or 0.6%).

Earlier this month, following the G7 Summit in Alberta, PM Mark Carney had stated that the US and Canada were discussing a new trade deal. Though no further details emerged, throughout the month, investors factored in that negotiations were going on.

Last week, backed by the trade talks and cheered by the truce between Israel and Iran, Canadian stock market actively moved higher.

Last Friday, the news of Canada levying a new digital services tax of 3% on foreign companies with global revenues greater than $820 million and Canadian revenues greater than $14.7 million (namely Google, Amazon, Meta, and Uber) enraged the US President Donald Trump, who announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he was ending all trade discussions with Canada and new tariffs on Canada shall be announced in a week.

These turn of events caused the market to end lower on Friday, as more than 80% of Canadian exports are destined for the US.

Late Sunday, the Canadian finance ministry announced that Canada has rescinded the digital tax on US companies and that PM Mark Carney and Trump shall hold talks to reach on a trade deal by July 21.

Consequently, the TSX opened this week on a positive note.

On the downside, reports of OPEC+ planning to increase their output in August added pressure on energy stocks.

Sectorally, with Healthcare (1.89%) making substantial gains, Materials (1.56%) and Communication Services (1.32%) were the other major gainers today.

Utilities, Real Estate, Financials, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, and IT gained from 0.29% to 0.85%.

Among the individual stocks, Bausch Health (2.83%), Tilray (3.70%), Torex Gold 4.81(%), and Lundin Gold (6.50%) were the prominent gainers.

Energy sector (0.53%) was the noteworthy loser in today's trading.

Among the individual stocks, Baytex Energy (3.17%), Parex Resources (1.14%), Cenovus Energy (0.91%), and Vermilion Energy (0.90%) were the notable losers.