FX.co ★ TSX Ends Marginally Up After Slightly Volatile Session

On Wednesday, the Canadian market saw a slight increase, as investors examined quarterly earnings reports and the Federal Reserve's fiscal policy announcement, in addition to eagerly awaiting critical U.S. non-agricultural payroll data.

Following the Federal Reserve's financial policy announcement, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ascended to 21,911.32 in the late afternoon before significantly tapering down to 21,728.55, marking a modest increase of 14.01 points or a 0.06% gain.

Positive contributions that aided the market's higher close were from utilities, financials, technology stocks, and a few select stocks from the communications sector. However, healthcare, energy, and consumer discretionary stocks had a weaker close.

In particulars, utility stock Brookfield Renewable Partners jumped by 11.5%, and Boralex escalated by 4.7%. Simultaneously, stocks in Brookfield Infra Partners, Innergex Renewable Energy, and Algonquin Power & Utilities increased by 2.2 to 2.7%.

In the financials sector, several companies, including Sprott Inc, CDN Western Bank, Fairfax Financial Holdings, Brookfield Corporation, and EQB Inc, experienced a 2 to 3% gain.

Technology stocks like Kinaxis Inc surged by 4%, while Descartes Systems Group, Constellation Software, BlackBerry, and Hut 8 Corp rose by 1.8 to 2.2%.

Contrastingly, cannabis stocks had a considerable decrease with Tilray Inc, Aurora Cannabis, and Canopy Growth Corp dropping by 19.3%, 20%, and 22.9%, respectively.

Energy stocks like Baytex Energy, Whitecap Resources, Kelt Exploration, Crescent Point Energy, MEG Energy, and Birchcliff Energy witnessed a drop of 3.2 to 5%. Moreover, the consumer discretionary stock of Restaurant Brands International also decreased by 3.52%.

From an economic perspective, the S&P Global Canada Manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.4 in April, marking the consecutive twelve-month contraction of the nation’s manufacturing activity.

The U.S. Federal Reserve held steady with its interest rates, as expected, due to a lack of further progress towards its 2% inflation target. Fed members reiterated that they require "greater confidence" in consistent movement towards 2% inflation before opting for interest rate cuts.

Furthermore, the Federal Reserve expressed its plans to continue reducing its Treasury securities, agency debt, and agency mortgage-backed securities holdings but at a slower pace. Accordingly, it plans on reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion.