Canada's main stock market advanced on Tuesday as investors' concern about U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate hike eased a day before the central bank's policy statement.
Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 27.98 points, or 0.18 percent, to 15,510.54 points, with gains driven by most major sectors.
The index managed to be in the positive territory when the market digested the concern about a possible interest rate hike by Fed in the near future. As a report in The Wall Street Journal came out indicating the Fed could be less hawkish than markets have been expecting, analysts believed that Fed will keep its current interest rate for a "considerable time."
Also Tuesday, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz reassured that the Canadian central bank would not raise the benchmark interest rate in a hurry. Financials, the most weighed sector in TSX, eked out a gain of 0.04 percent.
The industrial sector gained 0.38 percent, after Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that Canadian manufacturing sales increased 2.5 percent to 53.7 billion Canadian dollars in July, exceeding the previous record of 53.2 billion Canadian dollars set in July 2008.
The federal agency highlighted that Canada's manufacturing sales have trended upwards since January 2014, and the gain in July was largely attributable to higher sales in the transportation equipment and primary metal industries.
In response, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. advanced 1.4 percent to 225.96 Canadian dollars, while Canadian National Railway Company also rallied 0.76 percent to 80.72 Canadian dollars.
The energy sector added 0.4 percent, the biggest gain among TSX sectors, with its leading company Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. up 0.73 percent to 45.74 Canadian dollars per share.
Among other sectors, Telecom declined 0.52 percent while Info Tech was down 0.21 percent.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Tuesday climbed to 0. 9116 U.S. dollar from 0.9050 U.S. dollar on Monday, in response to Poloz's remarks that the currency markets have no place for the central bank to intervene./.