Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index Bounces Back To One-Month Closing High

(RTTNews) - Following the modest pullback seen over the two previous sessions, Canadian stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Friday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index jumped 235.96 points or 1.0 percent to 25,031.51, reaching its best closing level in a month.

The rally on Bay Street came amid reaction to upbeat U.S. economic data, with a closely watched Labor Department report showing U.S. job growth far exceeded economist estimates in the month of April.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 177,000 jobs in April compared to expectations for an increase of about 130,000 jobs.

At the same time, the jumps in employment in February and March were downwardly revised to 102,000 jobs and 185,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a net downward revision of 58,000 jobs.

The report also said the unemployment rate came in at 4.2 percent in April, unchanged from the previous month and in line with economist estimates.

Industrial stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, driving the S&P/TSX Capped Industrial Index up by 2.1 percent.

Significant strength was also visible among tech stocks despite a negative reaction to earnings news from Apple, with the S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology Index jumped by 1.6 percent.

Financial, energy and consumer stocks also saw notable strength, while gold stocks moved to the downside despite a rebound by the price of the precious metal.