The Toronto stock market edged slightly lower Monday amid lacklustre trading as banks, many businesses and the bond market closed for Remembrance Day.
The S&P/TSX composite index was off 7.83 points to greet noon at 13,370.50
The Canadian dollar gained 0.05 cents at 95.44 cents U.S.
The base metals sector gave back with December copper unchanged at $3.25 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources shed 32 cents to $28.05.
The tech sector led advancers amid acquisition activity between two major telecom equipment companies.
Telecom Mitel Networks Corp. will acquire Aastra Technologies Ltd.in a stock and cash deal valued at about $400 million. The combined company would have about $1.1 billion U.S. of total revenue, with a global customer base and an opportunity to tap into demand for equipment that supports cloud computing.
Mitel shares gained 22 cents to $7.31 while Aastra shares surged $4.64 or 16.4% to $32.87.
Shares in Manulife Financial Corp. were a penny lower to $19.71 after the insurance giant became the latest big-name investor to buy into a $1-billion financing deal for struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry.
Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is leading the financing, which is being done through an issue of six per cent convertible debentures.
Other partners include Mackenzie Financial Corp., Canso Investment Counsel Ltd., Markel Corp., Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Qatar Holding LLC. BlackBerry shares climbed nine cents to $6.93.
In other corporate news, SouthGobi Resources Ltd. is restating its financial reports for the first half of 2013 and the previous three years, and reporting bigger third-quarter loss than analysts expected.
The Mongolia-focused coal company's results fell short of estimates compiled last week before the restatements were issued Monday morning. Its shares shed seven cents to $1.
In the retail sector, Sears Canada Inc. is selling its 50% interest in eight properties for about $315 million to Montez Income Properties Corp. Two weeks ago, it announced it would close five stores as part of a deal to sell its rights to the retail space in Toronto's Eaton Centre and four other locations for $400 million. Its shares gained 66 cents to $16.66.
While the pace of earnings reports has considerably slowed, retailers will be in focus this week as investors look to earnings from Rona on Tuesday, and grocers Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and Metro on Wednesday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange subsided 1.24 points to 936.17
Seven of the 10 TSX subgroups were lower, weighed mostly by materials, down 0.5%, consumer staples, off 0.4%, and energy, off 0.3%.
The three gainers were information technology, up 0.4%, industrials, better by 0.3%, and financials, 0.2% to the good.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors were taking a breather Monday after driving the Dow Jones industrial average to a new record high last week.
The Dow Jones Industrials moved forward 18.08 points from Friday’s all-time high finish, to break for lunch at 15,779.90
The S&P 500 index hiked 0.92 points to 1,771.53. The NASDAQ slipped 2.31 points to 3,916.92
Both the Dow and S&P 500 are up more than 20% so far this year, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ is up nearly 30%. But there are concerns about how long the big market run up will last.
With no major corporate results or economic reports on the schedule, and the Treasury market closed for the Veterans Day holiday, stock market trading could be subdued.
Amazon.com shares were higher after the e-commerce giant announced a deal with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver seven days a week. The service will initially launch only in New York and Los Angeles, but is expected to expand to Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix in 2014.
Best Buy shares gained ground after UBS upgraded the electronics retailer's stock to "buy" from "neutral," and raised its price target to $49 U.S. per share.
Jefferies also boosted its price target on the stock. Best Buy is up 270% so far this year, making it the best performing stock in the S&P 500.
Transocean gained ground after the company agreed with activist investor Carl Icahn to pay out a dividend of $3 U.S. per share.
Shares of Twitter continued to slide Monday. After a 73% hike on its first day of trading Thursday, Twitter fell 7% Friday and was down another 3% Monday. The stock briefly dipped below $40 U.S. a share.
Bond markets, as mentioned, are closed for Veterans Day.
Oil prices moved forward 64 cents to $95.24 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices chopped $2.70 to $1,282.90 U.S. an ounce.
Related Stories
