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By Amran Abocar
Reuters
Friday, March 12, 2004
TORONTO, March 12 (Reuters) - Investors stepped back into the beaten down technology sector on Friday, helping keep Toronto stocks aloft at midday and offsetting weak Canadian employment data and jitters over deadly Madrid bomb attacks.
Adrian Mastracci, investment counsel and president of Vancouver based ‘fee-only’ KCM Wealth Management, says, “The economy is reasonably buoyant, the consumer is still spending...so you do have some things going well. We haven't done that badly in Canada.”
At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 51.80 points, or 0.61 percent, at 8,555.68 on volume of 138 million shares worth C$1.59 billion.
Bargain hunting after a four-day sell off was the order of the day and technology stocks, walloped by concerns they had run too far too fast, were the main beneficiaries.
The tech sector rose 3.15 percent, buoyed by strong quarterly profits from Oracle Corp. (ORCL.O) after markets closed on Thursday. The world's second biggest software maker reported an 11 percent rise in profits.
In Toronto, Nortel Networks Corp. (NT.TO) was up 33 Canadian cents, or 3.93 percent, at C$8.73, ATI Technologies (ATY.TO) rose 81 Canadian cents, or 4.4 percent, to C$19.20 and Celestica Inc. (CLS.TO) gained 85 Canadian cents, or 3.97 percent, to C$22.27.
Overall, nine of the TSX's 10 subgroups were higher at midday. Health-care rose 0.72 percent, energy was up 0.71 percent and industrials gained 0.66 percent.
The materials sector notched up a 0.32-percent gain despite weakness in gold stocks, which were down 1.52 percent.
Gold-mining issues were pressured by softer bullion prices as the U.S. dollar rallied after a key U.S. consumer sentiment report came close to forecasts on Friday.
Placer Dome (PDG.TO) , Canada's No. 2 gold producer, was down 50 Canadian cents, or 2.29 percent, at C$21.39 while Kinross Gold (K.TO) fell 15 Canadian cents, or 1.71 percent, to C$8.62.
The utilities group was the lone gainer at midday, up 0.63 percent.
The market shrugged off data showing the Canadian economy lost 21,200 jobs, compared to expectations for a 15,000-job gain. The unemployment rate in February was unchanged at 7.4 percent as expected.
"The economy is reasonably buoyant, the consumer is still spending...so you do have some things going well," said Adrian Mastracci, president of KCM Wealth Management Inc. "We haven't done that badly in Canada."
($1=$1.34 Canadian)
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