TSX notches biggest gain in two months as tech rallies

By Fergal Smith

(Reuters) -Canada's main stock index on Wednesday clawed back much of the previous day's sharp decline as technology and industrial shares led broad-based gains for the market.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended up 304.43 points, or 1.5%, at 20,889.40, its biggest advance since Dec. 13.

The index was down 2.3% on Tuesday after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data rattled investors.

"It's responding in my opinion to a very deep oversold condition that we got yesterday on a short-term basis," said Sid Mokhtari, chief market technician for CIBC Capital Markets.

"We are getting better participation with the industrials, stable price momentum within the financial sector in both the U.S. and Canada, and the technology complex is still considered to be the leadership area of focus."

The technology sector rallied 3%, industrials were up 2.4% and heavily weighted financials added 1.7%.

Financials were helped by a 7.2% gain for Intact Financial after the insurance company reported fourth-quarter results.

Alternative financial services company goeasy Ltd also reported quarterly earnings, beating estimates. Its shares climbed 8%.

All 10 major sectors ended higher but energy was barely up as the price of oil settled 1.6% lower at $76.64 a barrel on surging U.S. crude inventories.

Shares of CAE Inc fell 9.7% after the civil aviation training company missed analysts' estimates for quarterly earnings.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar and Sandra Maler)

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