Job growth figures from Friday, well above published expectations, gave investors an encouraging clap on the back as the S&P/TSX was up 39.99 points at the start of trading today to 13,826.49.
Today's activities saw the TSX gain 7.68 points to 13,794.18, while the TSX Venture exchange experienced a 5.31 point bump to 967.41 points.
Most sectors held their own in trading with Health Care and Metals & Mining seeing minimal increases.
Commodities like gold bumped up 0.96% to US$1,275 per ounce, while silver came up $20.06 per ounce. Copper and natural gas took a small hit dropping to $3.22 per ounce and $4.596 per mmBtu respectively while coal remained stable at $57.23 per ton.
Some of the big movers in the market today were gold companies like Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI, StockForum) who saw a 6.32% increase to $9.75 per share with Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD, StockForum) and Kinross Gold (TSX:K, StockForum) coming up 5.63% to $6.75 per share and 5.60% to $5.09 per share respectively.
Power, pharmaceutical and tech companies like Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG, StockForum), Galena Biopharma (NSE:GALE, StockForum) and GT Advanced Technologies (NASDAQ:GTAT, StockForum) topped off the day by jumping 14.52% to $3.55 per share, 9.33% to $5.39 per share and 9.31% to $11.74 per share respectively.
Today's market losers included North American Palladium (TSX:PDL, StockForum) with a 7.69% drop to $0.36 per share, Rexahn Pharmaceuticals (MKT:RNN, StockForum) with a 5.08% drop to $1.12 per share and Companhia Siderurigica Hacional (NYSE:SID, StockForum) with a 4.67% drop to $4.70 per share.
For more market activity stories and breakdowns see this morning's summary.