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TSX climbs to seven-week high as financials advance

FILE PHOTO: A TMX Group sign, the company that runs the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), is seen in Toronto, June 23, 2014. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo

(Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Monday to a seven-week high as shares of financial and industrial companies climbed, shaking off a weaker tone on global stock markets after data showing slower economic growth in China. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed up 50.33 points, or 0.3 percent, at 15,354.16, its highest since Dec. 3, 2018. Financials rose 0.4 percent, while the industrials group was up 0.7 percent. The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.6 percent. Energy was up 0.1 percent, helped by a 0.2 gain for U.S. crude oil futures. China's economy cooled in the fourth quarter under pressure from faltering domestic demand and bruising U.S. tariffs, dragging 2018 growth to the lowest in nearly three decades and pressuring Beijing to roll out more stimulus to avert a sharper slowdown. Volume on the TSX index was 92.54 million shares, much lighter than usual. Stock exchanges in the United States were shut for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume was cannabis producer Aphria Inc, up 11.6 percent to C$9.92. (Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Trott and Cynthia Osterman)