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TSX gains on mining, energy and energy as Middle East conflict intensifies

Canada's resource-heavy index of the main stock market rose on Monday, boosted by gains in mining and energy, as higher?commodity? prices offset worries?about an escalating?Middle East war.

10:37 am ET, the S&P/TSX Composite Index of the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 0.7% at 32,201.91. The S&P/TSX composite index of the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 0.7% to 32,201.91 at 10:37 a.m. ET.

Brent oil prices are on track to reach a new monthly record, while gold is up for the second straight session, as demand for safe havens picks up.

Ten out of eleven major sectors in the index traded in the green, including the mining and energy heavyweight sectors.

Kevin Headland is the co-chief investment strategy at Manulife Investments. He advises caution. He said, "We don't believe oil will remain structurally high for very long." Donald Trump, the U.S. President, said that Washington is in serious talks with Iran's "more reasonable regime" to end the conflict, but he repeated his warnings about the U.S. attacking Iranian oil wells, power plants, and other facilities if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. His comments follow the entry of Yemen's Iran backed Houthi militia into the war at the weekend.

The high oil prices have helped Canada’s commodity-heavy index to weather the war-shookn month of March better than the S&P 500. It fell about 6.3% compared with the U.S. benchmark’s near-7% decline.

The TSX climbed a whopping?2,1% last week to snap a three-week losing run,?but it's still on course to end the month with its worst performance since June 2022. Air Canada's shares fell 2.5% following the announcement that CEO Michael Rousseau would step down at the end of the third-quarter. (Reporting from Rashika Singh in Bengaluru and Ragini Mathematics in New York)

(source: Reuters)