By Nikhil Sharma
(Reuters) -Canada’s main stock index rose on Monday as gains in the real estate and utilities sectors offset losses in energy shares, while markets assessed the implications of U.S. President Joe Biden’s exit from the election race.
At 10:21 a.m. ET (1421 GMT), the S&P/TSX composite index was up 60.06 points, or 0.26%, at 22,751.94.
Wall Street indexes also edged higher after Biden on Sunday ended his reelection campaign and backed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat presidential candidate against Republican party’s Donald Trump.
Investors are also reevaluating their bets for Trump’s win, especially after the assassination attempt on the former U.S. president last week.
“As we go into November, it’s really not going to matter who the Democrats put forward, what’s going to matter is the health of the economy. And if that’s trending lower, it only supports Donald Trump,” said Macan Nia, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife Investment Management.
In Canada, rate-sensitive real estate and utilities indexes led the sectoral gains, rising 1.1% and 1%, respectively.
The heavyweight energy sector slipped as oil prices came under pressure, with investors looking for hints of an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September. [O/R]
Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy decision is due on Wednesday, with traders expecting the Canadian central bank to trim borrowing costs again.
After the recent benign datasets, including the inflation and retail sales numbers last week, money markets are pricing in a 93% chance of the BoC cutting the rate this week.
Among individual stocks, Sleep Country Canada’s (TO:) shares rose 27.5% to top the TSX index after insurance-focused conglomerate Fairfax Financial agreed to buy the retailer in a deal valued at C$1.7 billion ($1.24 billion).
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