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TSX ends up 0.4% at 26,718.62

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Eclipses June 12 record closing high

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Tech advances 2.5%, financials add 1%

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Annual rate of inflation holds steady at 1.7%

(Updates at market close)

By Fergal Smith

June 24 (Reuters) -

Canada's main stock index rose to a record high on Tuesday,

led by financial and technology shares, as investors cheered a

cooling of

Middle East tensions

and found reassurance in domestic inflation data.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 109.26

points, or 0.4%, at 26,718.62, eclipsing the record closing high

it posted on June 12.

"It's riding on the coattails of what's come out recently in

the Middle East," said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of

the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth.

"All of a sudden we went from everything around us was

negative, to positive once again. That's how fast things can

turn and a good example to why investors can't run and hide,

(can't) try and time markets."

Wall Street

also rallied as investors welcomed a fragile truce with

Israel and Iran while parsing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome

Powell's congressional testimony for clues regarding the U.S.

central bank's path forward.

Canada's annual inflation rate

in May was unchanged from the previous month, at 1.7%, as a

drop in gasoline costs continued to keep the overall index

stable while prices of shelter, food and transportation also

cooled.

"The CPI numbers they weren't anything that I thought anyway

to be nervous about," Small said.

The heavily weighted financials sector rose 1%, while

technology ended 2.5% higher, helped by a gain of 4% for

e-commerce company Shopify ( SHOP ).

Commodity-linked stocks were a drag. The energy sector

lost 1.5% as the price of oil settled 6% lower at

$64.37 a barrel on expectations that the ceasefire will reduce

the risk of oil supply disruptions in the Middle East.

Energy producers in Alberta

, Canada's top oil-producing province, blew past the

province's self-imposed limit on annual natural gas flaring in

2024 for a second year in a row, Reuters calculations show.

Safe-haven gold also declined, falling 2.5%. The

materials sector, which includes metal mining shares, was down

1.7%.