TORONTO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Canadian stock market ended higher on Thursday as some of the country's largest financial institutions reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
Three of Canada's largest banks reported a combined profit of nearly 4.7 billion Canadian dollars on Thursday, as Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce released a string of positive earnings reports before the market opened.
Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest, earned 2.07 billion Canadian dollars in the first quarter this year, a 12- percent increase year on year. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the second largest, earned 1.79 billion Canadian dollars, up more than 20 percent from a year ago. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the fifth largest, reported a profit of 798 million Canadian dollars.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 89.44 points, or 0.70 percent, to 12,821.83, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index increased 2.24 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,133.36.
The financial sector surged 0.7 percent, contributing much to the market's gains. Shares of Royal Bank of Canada grew 0.85 percent to 64.02 Canadian dollars. Toronto-Dominion Bank also went up 0.65 percent to 84.85 Canadian dollars.
Strength also came from the industrial sector as Canadian National Railways increased by 2.98 Canadian dollars to a fresh 52- week high of 104.66 dollars per share.
Energy shares also rose, with Suncor Energy up 0.64 percent to 31.25 Canadian dollars.
The metals and mining sector was fairly flat as May copper on the New York Mercantile Exchange slightly dropped by two U.S. cents to 3.55 U.S. dollars a pound.
And the Canadian dollar plummeted to 0.9700 U.S. dollars at 5 p. m. local time (2200 GMT) Thursday, compared with 0.9772 on Wednesday.
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