Make Kitco Your Homepage

Off The Wire

TSX rises as energy stocks jump on Russia jitters; Fed in focus

Reuters

Kitco News

Sept 21 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Wednesday as energy shares climbed on firm crude oil prices after Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization, while investors braced for another aggressive U.S. rate hike.

At 9:57 a.m. ET (13:57 GMT), the resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) was up 51.87 points, or 0.27%, at 19,420.56.

The energy sector (.SPTTEN) rose 0.9% as crude oil prices jumped more than 2% after Putin's announcement raised concerns of tighter oil and gas supply.

"The situation in Europe is not going to go away anytime soon, which means there will be further tightening of global supply and commodities, so that should be positive for energy and natural gas and other materials that Canada exports but its not good news from an economy point of view," said Greg Taylor, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments.

However, investors remained nervous ahead of an expected rate hike by the Fed at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), which will be followed by a news conference from Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Rate-sensitive technology stocks (.SPTTTK) gained 0.7%.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) ended nearly 1% lower on Tuesday as the prospect of aggressive rate hikes by the Fed added to worries about the global economic outlook, even as data showed Canadian inflation eased again in August.

Inflation in Canada remains "too high" but is headed in the right direction, a Bank of Canada official said on Tuesday, adding the central bank will do whatever is needed to bring price increases back to target. read more

Teck Resources Ltd (TECKb.TO) fell 4.8% on reporting plant outage at its Elkview steelmaking coal operation and saying initial estimates are that production will be interrupted for 1-2 months as repairs are implemented.

Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Anil D'Silva
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.