The Toronto stock market was higher Monday as positive Chinese data lifted commodity prices and mining stocks and the energy sector advanced following Friday's announcement clarifying takeovers by foreign state-owned energy companies.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 52.06 points to greet noon hour at 12,211.65
The Canadian dollar poked ahead 0.01 cents to 101.31 cents U.S.
The federal government on Friday approved two high-profile deals. The state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Corp. got the green light for its $15.1-billion purchase of Nexen Inc. And Malaysian state-controlled energy company Petronas can go ahead with its $6-billion acquisition of Progress Energy Resources Corp.
Nexen shot up 14% to $26.55 while Progress shares jumped 13.4% to $21.96.
However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it clear that state-owned energy companies will find it extremely difficult to buy up Canadian oilsands producers in future.
There had been concerns that some of those companies could be under heavy selling pressure since they can no longer realistically hope to be snapped up by foreign state-owned enterprises at fat share price premiums.
For example, Meg Energy Corp. was down $1.36 to $33.36 but Athabasca Oil Corp. recovered most of an early loss, down a slight nine cents to $10.16.
But analysts pointed out that state-controlled energy companies aren't the only source of capital or acquisitions.
Elsewhere in the energy sector, Spartan Oil Corp. shares gained 40 cents or 9% to $4.80 as it announced it has received an unsolicited takeover offer. No other details on the offer have been released. Spartan is active the Cardium light oil play in central Alberta and the Bakken light oil resource play in southeast Saskatchewan.
Precision Drilling Corp. plans to cut capital spending to $485 million in 2013 from approximately $920 million this year while also instituting a quarterly dividend of five cents per share. Its shares were up seven cents to $7.36.
Iamgold Corp. improved by 20 cents to $10.84.
Industrials were also supportive as Canadian Pacific Railway rose $1.17 to $98.87.
On the economic calendar, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported this morning that the pace of housing starts fell in November for a third straight month.
The agency says there were 17,646 actual starts last month, which translates to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 196,125 units, down from 203,487 in October.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange subtracted 2.68 points early in the afternoon to 1,183.38
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups gained ground midday Monday, led by the metals and mining group, up 1.3%, global base metals, up 0.9%, and industrials, ahead 0.8%.
The two laggards were information technology, sliding 1.2%, and utilities, off 0.04%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks edged higher Monday as shares of big technology companies rallied, but gains were held in check by fiscal cliff negotiations and uncertainty in Europe.
The Dow Jones Industrials moved up 30.68 points to greet noon Monday to 13,185.80, led by shares of Hewlett Packard. HP shares jumped 3% on unconfirmed reports that activist investor Carl Icahn could take a stake in the computer maker. HP had no comment on the reports and calls to Icahn Enterprises went unanswered. .
The S&P 500 inched higher 2.87 points to 1,420.94, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 12.70 points to 2,990.74.
Shares of other technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft, also gained. Apple shares edged higher, following last week's nearly 9% slide
On the corporate front, shares of McDonald's gained ground after the fast food chain said global same-store sales, a key metric, rose 2.4% in November, led by sales growth in the United States.
Shares of Ingersoll-Rand rose after the company said it plans to spin off its commercial and residential security businesses into a new company. Ingersoll-Rand also announced a $2 billion share repurchase program and boosted its quarterly dividend.
Best Buy shares declined after the stock was downgraded by Bank of America analysts.
Treasury prices strengthened, lowering yields on the 10-year note to 1.62% from Friday’s 1.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on 24 cents to $86.17 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices grew $8.20 an ounce to $1,713.70 U.S.
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