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By: Cameron French
Reuters
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
TORONTO,
April 15 (Reuters) - Toronto stocks
notched small gains on Tuesday, rising for
the fourth straight day as growing confidence
in the domestic economy overcame some weaker
earnings news.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite
index .GSPTSE ended the session up 25.75 points,
or 0.4 percent, at 6,488.18.
Adrian
Mastracci, investment counsel and president
of Vancouver based ‘fee-only’ KCM
Wealth Management, says, “We're not
going as fast as we would like, but we do
have a
reasonably good economy given the circumstances.”
The index has been moving in small increments
over the past few weeks, but has edged steadily
higher as the drawing down of hostilities in
Iraq has returned investor focus to economic
and earnings-related news.
"The economy is still clicking along.
We're not going as fast as we would like, but
we do have a reasonably good economy given
the circumstances," said Adrian
Mastracci,
investment counsel and president of KCM Wealth
Management Inc.
Before markets opened, the Bank of Canada
raised interest rates for the fifth time in
a year, upping its key overnight rate to 3.25
percent from 3 percent, and pinning the decision
on inflation rates running well outside its
targets.
While the rate move did raise the cost of
borrowing money, analysts said it showed the
central bank was still confident in the progress
of the economy.
Eight of the 10 TSX subgroups rose during
the session, as the first wave quarterly earnings
reports arrived.
Celestica Inc. CLS.TO , the world's No. 4
contract electronics manufacturer, finished
down 55 Canadian cents at C$14.10, after reporting
a weaker than expected first-quarter profit
as sales fell 26 percent from a year earlier.
The tech sector rose 0.37 percent overall,
as Leitch Technology Corp. LTV.TO climbed 41
Canadian cents to C$5.50, while graphics chips
maker ATI Technologies Inc. ATY.TO rose 17
Canadian cents to C$8.36.
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