The Toronto stock market headed higher in mid morning trade fueled by a record profit from Westjet and a number of other postive earning announcements from key energy players. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 23.42 points to 12,316.11.
WestJet Airlines announced that it has selected Bombardier Inc. to supply the propeller aircraft it requires for a new regional service. WestJet will take delivery of up to 45 of the Bombardier Q400 planes over the next six years.
WestJet also handed in a record first-quarter profit of $68.3 million or 49 cents per diluted share, up from $48.2 million or 34 cents per diluted share in the first quarter of 2011. Revenue was nearly $891 million, up from $772.4 million a year earlier.
WestJet shares jumped 57 cents to $14.80 while Bombardier was five cents higher to $4.23.
Shares in Suncor Energy Inc. Canada’s largest energy company, were up 65 cents to $33.28. The company booked quarterly operating earnings, which are adjusted for one-time items, of $1.33 billion, or 85 cents per share. That beat the average estimate of 81 cents per share.
Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. said first-quarter profits were $321 million, or 66 cents per share, down from $324 million, or 67 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue was $1.04 billion, up from $1.01 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were on average expecting earnings of 54 cents per share and revenue of $944 million.
Shares in Talisman Energy declined 16 cents to $12.76 as the energy company said it had a US$291-million profit in the first quarter due to increased cash flow and lower expenses, which helped the international oil and gas producer beat analyst earnings estimates. Net income was 28 cents per share for the quarter, seven cents better than forecast.
The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, declined 0.04 of a cent to 101.18 cents US.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 10.53 points to 1,434.57.
Eleven of the 14 Toronto subgroups were in positive territory, led by energy, up 1.47%, industrials climbed 1.09%, and mining stocks gained 0.88%.
On the downside -- tech was off 2.39%, consumer staples 0.30% and telecom shed .03%.
June gold futures were up $5.20 to $1,669.40 an ounce.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were surging in morning action Tuesday after a much better-than-expected report on the pace of national manufacturing activity in April.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was rising 80 points, or 0.6%, at 13,294. The S&P 500 was up 12 points, or 0.8%, at 1410, and the Nasdaq was adding 29 points, or 1%, at 3075.
The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to 54.8% last month from 53.4% in March. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast the index would fall to 53.3%.
In addition, the Department of Commerce said March construction spending increased 0.1%, missing the 0.5% rise estimated by economists. The prior month's figure was downwardly revised to a decline of 1.4% from a fall of 1.1%.
In corporate news, oil giant BP said first-quarter net profit fell 18%, hurt by weakness in its downstream business. BP posted net profit of $5.9 billion, down from $7.3 billion a year earlier. Replacement cost profit declined 12% to $4.9 billion. Underlying replacement cost profit at BP's downstream business fell 58%. Shares were falling 2.3%.
Drug giant Pfizer reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of 58 cents a share on revenue of $15.4 billion; analysts were expecting earnings of 56 cents a share on revenue of $15.47 billion. Pfizer's first-quarter earnings of $1.8 billion fell from year-earlier earnings of $2.2 billion. The drug maker is fresh off last week's agreement to sell its nutrition business to Nestlé for $11.85 billion. Shares were down 0.4%.
Satellite radio company Sirius XM beat Wall Street's revenue estimate in the first quarter, boosted by strong subscriber growth. The satellite radio giant brought in revenue of $805 million, up from $724 million in the prior year's quarter, and above analysts' estimates of $803.83. Shares were rising 2.4%.
In commodity markets, the June crude oil contract was down 16 cents to trade at $104.71 a barrel.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury was rising 2/32, diluting the yield to 1.913%.
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