TORONTO — North American stock markets posted gains Friday, with Toronto's main index rising more than 200 points, as investors declined to continue the previous day's selloff.
"We had a correction in the markets yesterday and, interestingly enough, we didn't get much follow through in the way of selling pressure afterwards," said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management.
The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 205.65 points to 15,256.57. It lost over 650 points — more than four per cent — on Thursday.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 477.37 points to 25,605.54. The S&P 500 index rose 39.21 points to 3,041.31, while the Nasdaq composite went up 96.08 points to 9,588.81. The indexes fell 6.9 per cent, 5.9 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively the day prior.
The markets were overdue for a correction, said Cieszynski, noting they had been on the rise for quite some time without much of a drop.
On Friday, they were stablizing.
"Stock markets basically are just bouncing back today," he said.
"I think we've seen bargain hunters stepping in. We've seen some of the bears from yesterday, perhaps, have backed off."
He noted the TSX saw gains across most sectors, with materials the only loser with a drop of 0.25 per cent.
Real estate led the rise, with the sector up 2.85 per cent. The health-care sector was the second biggest winner of the day, with a gain of 2.16.
That makes for a pretty solid day, he said, noting there was an absence of any major news overnight to move stock markets.
The previous day's drops were attributed to concerns about how quickly the economy can rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We didn't see investors reading the newspaper this morning and seeing, "Oh my gosh, the market was down seven per cent yesterday, I've got to sell and head for the exits," or anything," he said.
"It didn't cause a panic."
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.78 cents US on Thursday.
The July crude contract fell eight cents to US$36.26 per barrel and the July natural gas contract was unchanged at US$1.74 per mmBTU.
The August gold contract dropped by US$2.50 to US$1,737.30 an ounce and the July copper contract gained about a penny to US$2.60 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2020.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)
The Canadian Press