Feb 22 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday, buoyed by gains in technology and healthcare stocks, reflecting the gains in its Wall Street peers after chip designer Nvidia's strong quarterly results and forecast.
At 10:27 a.m. ET (15:27 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE), opens new tab was up 122.03 points, or 0.58%, at 21,294.41.
Information technology (.SPTTTK), opens new tab stocks led gains on the index with a 1.5% rise and are set to snap their three-session losing streak. Electronic company Celestica (CLS.TO), opens new tab rose 10.4%, the highest among the tech stocks.
Wall Street's main indexes also opened higher on Thursday as Nvidia's bumper results and forecast powered an AI-led rally, with the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab briefly notching a fresh record high.
"The epicentre of today's rally is the IT sector, as evidenced by the performance of the megacap tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 index. Nvidia's bullish announcement has ignited a major rally in equity markets worldwide," said Brandon Michael, senior investment analyst at ABC Funds.
Back on the TSX, healthcare companies (.GSPTTHC), opens new tab also rose 1.5% to hit over a month high, helped by Bausch Health's (BHC.TO), opens new tab 5.7% gain after quarterly revenue beat.
Communication services shares (.GSPTTTS), opens new tab declined 1.2%, pulled down by a 5.3% fall in Quebecor (QBRb.TO), opens new tab after its fourth quarter results.
Separately, Canada's retail sales in December slightly beat expectations, growing by 0.9%, as the holiday season spurred people to spend more, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.
Data released earlier this week showed that the country's annual inflation rate slowed more than expected in January, bringing forward bets of an early interest rate cut by the Bank of Canada ahead of its next meeting in March.
In corporate news, shares of Enerplus (ERF.TO), opens new tab climbed 12.9% after U.S. energy firm Chord Energy (CHRD.O), opens new tab said on Wednesday it would acquire Enerplus to create a Williston basin-focused entity with an enterprise value of $11 billion.
Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar
