Toronto Stocks Jumps On Bombardier Boost

Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday, driven by a clutch of positive earnings reports from companies including business jet maker Bombardier and Tim Hortons-owner Restaurant Brands International.

At 9:56 a.m. ET (13:56 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 32.07 points, or 0.16%, at 19,578.01.

Bombardier Inc jumped 11.6% after it reported a smaller quarterly loss, helped by steady demand and lower interest expenses.

The industrials sector rose 1.2%.

Restaurant Brands International climbed 6.6% as the company beat second-quarter sales and profit estimates, boosted by strong demand at its Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurants.

"The message so far has been that the sky's not falling," said Angelo Kourkafas, investment strategist at Edward Jones Investments. "Even though the results are not great, they are good enough. They've been good enough so far with consumer demand generally proving to be fairly resilient."

Sun Life Financial, Canada's second-largest life insurer, gained 3.2% on a better-than-expected core profit for the second quarter and sale of its UK unit.

News and information company Thomson Reuters Corp advanced 2.4% after it reported a higher operating profit and raised its full-year revenue forecast.

The materials sector, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 1.6% tracking a 0.9% rise in gold futures. The gains in bullion were driven by a pullback in U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar. [GOL/]

Capping the gains on the index, the energy sector dropped 1.9% as U.S. crude prices were down 1.1% a barrel, while Brent crude lost 1.3%. [O/R]