|
By Blaise Robinson
Reuters
Thursday, December 1, 2005
TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto stocks surged on Thursday, inspired by strong commodity prices that encouraged a bounce-back after Wednesday's fall.
Adrian Mastracci, investment counsel at Vancouver’s ‘fee-only’ KCM Wealth Management, says, "The 11,000 mark again, the TSX is almost there. At some point we are going to leave it behind, but in the meantime, investors will have to be able to stand those ups and downs.”
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed 175.50 points, or 1.62 percent, higher at 10,999.64. It dropped 118 points on Wednesday.
"The 11,000 mark again, the TSX is almost there," said Adrian Mastracci, investment counsel and president at KCM Wealth Management Inc.
"At some point we are going to leave it behind, but in the meantime, investors will have to be able to stand those ups and downs," Mastracci said.
All of the TSX index's 10 main groups closed higher, led by technology issues, up 3.6 percent.
Energy issues, which account for roughly 25 percent of the overall composite index, were next in line with a 3.27 percent rise, while the materials group, home to mining and metals issues, advanced 2.82 percent.
Gold prices soared to a 23-year high of $506.30 as investment funds were buying the precious metal again after it broke out over the key $500 an ounce mark.
That drove gold-mining issues 3.04 percent higher, with Agnico-Eagle Mines adding 90 Canadian cents, or 5.26 percent, to C$18, and Kinross Gold gaining 36 Canadian cents, or 4.11 percent, to C$9.11.
Surging gold-mining issues were an important factor in the overall rally, said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada in Toronto.
"Bullion is convincingly over $500 so we are finally getting interest in gold stocks," Ing said.
Most of the big oil and gas producers rose as oil prices jumped more than a dollar to settle at $58.47 as cold weather swept into the U.S. Northeast, boosting demand for heating oil.
EnCana Corp. gained C$1.83, or 3.53 percent, to C$53.60, and Nexen Inc. rose C$2.72, or 5.31 percent, to C$53.96.
Suncor Energy Inc. added C$1.61, or 2.43 percent, to C$67.95 after the Canadian oil producer and refiner said it had approved a C$3.5 billion capital spending program for 2006, which will be used mostly to boost its oil sands operations.
In the tech group, Research In Motion gained C$4.99, or 7.04 percent, to C$75.85, rebounding after a 6.8 percent slump on Wednesday when a court ruling moved the maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device close to an injunction that could largely shut down its service in the United States.
Among financials, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce finished almost flat at C$75.20 after it posted a 81 percent jump in quarterly profit, helped by one-time items. It also said it would cut 950 jobs.
The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed 10.10 points, or 1.65 percent higher, at 621.19.
Volume was a heavy 397 million shares worth C$5.6 billion, while market sentiment was overwhelmingly positive as advancers outpaced decliners by a ratio of 5 to 3.
In New York, stocks rallied with three major indexes clinching their biggest single-day gains in a month as higher oil prices lifted energy shares and benign inflation data eased worries about interest-rate increases.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 106.70 points, or 0.99 percent, at 10,912.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 34.35 points, or 1.54 percent, at 2,267.17.
|
