The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index closed little changed on Friday as a rally in commodity issues was offset by weaker financial stocks, which slipped on lingering fears over the global credit squeeze. The decline in bank stocks came as surprisingly robust jobs data from both Canada and the United States dulled expectations of interest rate cuts.
As well, the strong jobs numbers from south of the border, added to investor worries about US inflation. But a jump in gold and oil prices boosted resource shares and helped give the commodity-heavy TSX a lift.
The lightweight tech sector also gave support, pulled higher by Open Text Corp a day after the business software firm posted better than expected first-quarter results.
Open Text was the biggest advancer by weight, gaining C$2.73, or 9 percent, to C$32.73. "The usual to-ing and fro-ing on the credit woes have cast a pall on financial stocks, notwithstanding the drop in rates," said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada.
"Also, the economic numbers that came out today (from the US) suggest that inflation is going to be a problem," Ing added. The S&P/TSX composite index finished with a slight decline of 8.66 points, or 0.06 percent, to 14,363.88 with seven of the TSX's 10 main groups finishing lower. The market is up 0.5 percent for the week.
The index finished lower in three of the last five sessions in a see-saw week that posted both large declines and advances. "There's still a lot of uncertainty in the market and we've seen that with the volatility this week. Every time you try to make a break forward, you pull it right back again," said Julie Brough, assistant vice president at Morgan Meighen & Associates.
The financial sector slid 0.8 percent with Bank of Nova Scotia dipping 55 Canadian cents, or 1 percent, to C$52.62, and Royal Bank of Canada sliding 81 Canadian cents, or 1.5 percent, to C$53.90. A new peak for the price of gold gave the market upward direction as bullion moved past $800 an ounce for the first time since 1980.
The materials group gained 0.8 percent while the gold subsector jumped 2.6 percent. Barrick Gold was up C$2.22, or 5.5 percent, to C$42.61, and Goldcorp rose C$1.05, or 3.3 percent, to $33.30. The energy sector gained 0.7 percent as the price of oil soared $2.44 to $95.93 a barrel, within sight of the record high $96.24 touched earlier in the week.
Petro-Canada was up C$1.01, or 1.9 percent, at C$54.34, and Suncor Energy rose 49 Canadian cents, or 0.5 percent, to C$101.50. Market volume was 428 million shares worth C$8 billion. Decliners outpaced advancers 845 to 751. The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed up 1.07 points, or 0.13 percent, at 833.53.
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