Source: The Canadian Press<\/i>
The Toronto stock market closed slightly higher Monday as traders, feeling more confident, bought stocks across most sectors.
The S&P\/TSX composite index rose 20.08 points to 13,811.93, well below earlier levels, as losses in the energy sector grew as oil prices slid for a third day. The TSX Venture Exchange was ahead 4.74 points at 2,375.03.
The advance followed a 2.6% gain last week as strong U.S. outlooks on the manufacturing and service sectors raised hopes for the economic recovery.
\u201cConfidence has improved,\u201d observed Kate Warne, Canadian market specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
\u201cOverall, it\u2019s a continuation of what we saw last week, which was earnings are strong, the economic news is coming in better than expected in general and investors are feeling more confident that this is going to continue rather than thinking it\u2019s something temporary that is likely to reverse next week.\u201d
The Canadian dollar was slightly lower against the greenback, down 0.18 of a cent at 100.99 cents US amid some positive news from the housing sector.
Statistics Canada reported that the value of Canadian building permits increased 2.4% to $5.7 billion in December following two consecutive months of declines. The increase was mainly attributable to higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings in Ontario.
The base metals sector led advancers, up one per cent with copper prices unchanged from Friday\u2019s latest record close of US$4.58 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange on higher demand as well as supply concerns.
\u201cCopper tends to be tied to industrial activity, so that strong manufacturing (data) from the U.S. last week, the continuation of good numbers out of most of the rest of the world, suggest that demand for copper continues strong and that is a good confirmation of some of these other indicators,\u201d Warne said.
First Quantum (TSX:FM) was up $3.90 at C$133 a day before the company releases earnings and Quadra FNX Mining (TSX:QUX) climbed 23 cents to $14.68.
The industrials sector gained 0.63%, with Canadian National Railways (TSX:CNR) ahead 55 cents at $68.10.
The financial sector was also supportive, with insurers leading the way. Manulife Financial (TSX:MFC) climbed 31 cents to $19.15 while Sun Life Financial (TSX:SLF) rose 31 cents to $33.33.
The gold sector was little changed as the April bullion contract on the Nymex slipped 80 cents to US$1,348.20 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) faded 36 cents to $40.80.
Shares in Crystallex International Corp. (TSX:KRY) plunged 39% to 14 cents on 8.5 million shares after the company said Sunday that its contract to develop the Las Cristinas gold mine in Venezuela has been unilaterally terminated. Crystallex has considered the Las Cristinas mine in southern Bolivar state to be its principal asset, estimating it holds about 17 million ounces of gold.
The energy sector was the biggest decliner as the risk premium for crude that resulted from almost two weeks of chaotic protests that have called for the outster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak unwound for a third day. The March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.55 to US$87.48 a barrel, leaving the energy sector flat. Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) lost 22 cents to C$40.39 while Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) was down 61 cents at $44.58.
Crude prices had gained about four per cent last week amid investors concern that political instability could spread to oil rich countries in the Middle East.
A stronger U.S. dollar also deterred some buyers. Since oil is priced in U.S. dollars, a stronger greenback makes it more costly for buyers who use other currencies.
Earnings will be a major focus for Canadian investors this week with several major corporations reporting, including Gildan Activewear (TSX:GIL) and Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) on Tuesday.
Fertilizer giant Agrium (TSX:AGU), WestJet (TSX:WJA) and forestry company Canfor (TSX:CFP) are slated for Wednesday, while BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE), Air Canada (TSX:AC.B), Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX:SC) and gas giant EnCana (TSX:ECA) hand in earnings on Thursday. Uranium miner Cameco (TSX:CCO) wraps up the week on Friday.
Merger and acquisition news helped lift New York markets.
Offshore oil rig operator Ensco said it will buy Pride International in a deal valued at about US$7.31 billion. Pride shares surged $5.41, or 15.73%, to US$39.80.
New York\u2019s Dow Jones industrials gained 69.48 points to 12,161.63.
The Nasdaq composite index was ahead 14.69 points at 2,783.99 while the S&P 500 index added 8.18 points to 1,319.05.
In other corporate news, AOL Inc. is buying online news hub Huffington Post in a US$315-million deal. The news site ranks as one of the top 10 current events and global news sites. AOL will add Huffington Post co-founder and media star Arianna Huffington to its management team as part of the deal. AOL shares declined 75 cents to US$21.19.
WestJet Airlines Ltd. shares gained seven cents to $13.27 as the carrier made further inroads into the U.S. market through an interline partnership that will enable its passengers to easily connect with the Delta Air Lines route network. Customers of either airline can now travel over connecting flights on one ticket, get boarding passes for all flight legs at check-in and tag bags through to their final destination.
Telus (TSX:T) says it will begin offering a service to unlock mobile phones that use SIM cards starting next week. The telecom company says that starting Feb. 15 its customers will be able to pay $50 to have their mobile phones unlocked, a move that would allow the devices to work on other carrier\u2019s networks. Telus shares shed three cents to $49.68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil slides for third day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2312,2313],"tags":[2314],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261369"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=261369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}