Toronto’s main stock index hit a one-week high on Thursday as Research In Motion Ltd shares jumped nearly 16% on growing hopes for its new devices and as earnings expectations lifted financial stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 53.04 points to end Thursday at 12,153.10
The Canadian dollar faded 0.06 cents to 100.29 cents U.S.
RIM stock reached $11.86, up 15.9% from Wednesday, after National Bank Financial raised its price target on the stock to $15, citing "positive sentiment building in the industry" ahead of the launch of the company's BlackBerry 10 devices.
The stock played the second-biggest role of any single company in leading the market higher.
The financial sector rallied for a fifth day, ahead of the quarterly reporting season for Canadian banks, which starts next week.
Experts said expectations for solid results and possible dividend increases at some of the smaller banks have been fueling the sector.
Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest bank, was up 0.4% at $57.82, and Toronto-Dominion Bank rose 0.5% to $81.02.
Sun Life Financial Inc rose 0.3% to $26.99, and Great-West Life gained 0.5% to $23.45.
The index's materials sector, which includes mining stocks, extended gains made in the previous session on higher prices for gold and other commodities.
Miner Barrick Gold Corp was up 0.6% at $34.84. Fertilizer producer Potash Corp gained 1% to $38.60, Teck Resources Ltd rose 2.5% to $32.56, and Silver Wheaton Corp was up 0.6% at $36.52.
Industrials advanced, with Canadian National Railway Co rising 1.7%, to $87.23.
Internationally, HSBC Corp.’s purchasing managers’ index shows that China’s manufacturing sector expanded for the first time in 13 months in November, rising from 49.5 in October to 50.4.
Any reading over 50 indicates expansion. The PMI index measures overall manufacturing activity by surveying numerous indicators including orders, employment and actual production.
The HSBC reading was particularly good news for the global economy, which is still recovering slowly from the 2008 financial crisis and recession.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported this morning that retail sales added 0.1% to $39.1 billion in September, following increases in the previous two months.
The nation’s number crunchers also said that those of us receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits in September declined, by 5,700, or 1.1%, to 525,900.
Elsewhere, falling home prices and an uptick in household income made Canadian home ownership slightly more affordable in the third quarter, but the longer-term trend is largely unchanged, according to a report by RBC Economics
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 5.70 points to 1,248.36
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were positive on the day. Information technology issues surged 4.5%, while the metals and mining group chugged along 1.2% and industrials grew 0.7%.
The lone naysayers were gold and health-care, each 0.1% less robust than Wednesday.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. markets were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving
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