Toronto stocks finished flat Tuesday, unable to hold on to gains spurred by this morning’s 75 basis point cut to interest rates from the Bank of Canada.
The 300 composite index ended the session down 1.01 points at 6,904.24.
Strong gains in the tech-heavy industrial products sub-index kept the composite index from falling deeper into the red.
Industrials closed up 1.08%. Metals and minerals also put in a strong performance finishing up 2.29% on the day.
Overall, six of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices groups advanced. Among the today’s losers, most declined less than 1%. The heaviest losses were in paper and forest products down 1.27%.
Ballard Power Systems Inc. provided some of the lift to the TSE’s tech shares. The stock jumped 12.9% to $43.90. Electronics maker Celestica Inc. rose 3.4% to $58.50.
Nortel Networks Corp. was the day’s most active issue. Nortel stock, traded flat, up 2¢ to $9.12, with 10 million shares changing hands.
Insurance stocks closed lower, following Canada Life’s warning of lower third quarter earnings. Clarica dropped 61¢ to $46.39, while Sun Life shed 94¢ to $31.21. E-L Financial, parent company of Empire Life, dropped $15 to $210.
Canada’s banks benefited from the larger than expected rate cut by the Bank of Canada today. Royal climbed 35¢ to $45.75, while Bank of Montreal added 10¢ to $35.47. TD wasn’t as lucky; its shares fell 45¢ to $35.51.
Market momentum was positive with advances outpacing declines 534 to 495. Volume was relatively light with 102 million shares changing hands.
Canada’s venture capital stocks fared better today. The CDNX Index closed up 6.20 at 2,931.66. Trading was active on a volume of 26.2 million, with 145 advances, 189 declines and 546 issues unchanged.
In New York, major indices fell amid losses in telecom stocks and renewed anthrax concerns.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 36.96 points to 9,340.08. The Nasdaq composite index dipped 3.64 points to 1,704.44. The S&P 500 shed 5.12 points to 1,084.78.