The Toronto stock market remained positive on Monday afternoon as new data about the Canadian economy and comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve gave investors reason to cheer.
The S&P/TSX composite index increased 74.59 points to close the session at 14,335.31
The Canadian dollar added 0.07 cents at 90.47 cents U.S.
Nordion Inc. was one of the most heavily traded companies on the TSX following a friendly $727-million U.S. takeover offer for the health sciences company on Friday. The stock was up about 10.4% or $1.20 at $12.76 with more than 5.7 million shares exchanged.
In corporate developments, Encana Corp. has agreed to sell certain natural gas properties in Wyoming for about $1.8 billion U.S. to an affiliate of TPG Capital.
The deal involves about 1,500 active wells in the Jonah field. Encana shares lost six cents to $23.64.
Telus shares dropped 58 cents to $39.77 after the company announced Darren Entwistle would be stepping aside as president and CEO of one of Canada's largest telecommunications companies. He'll be replaced by Telus veteran executive Joe Natale effective May 8, when the company has its shareholders meeting.
Canadian autoparts manufacturer Martinrea International Inc. is looking for a new president and chief executive officer to replace Nick Orlando, who will remain in the position for now.
The announcement came as Martinrea reported financial results for the year and fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 and said a special committee of its board has concluded its review of earlier public disclosures and determined there's no need to change earlier statements.
Shares of Martinrea were up $1.23, or 14%, to $10.00.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported this morning that real gross domestic product rose 0.5% in January. This follows a 0.5% decline in December after five consecutive monthly increases.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange tacked on 4.81 points to 994.56
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were higher by the close, with health-care up 1.6%, industrials closing 1.4% higher, and consumer discretionaries gaining 1%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by gold, lower by 2.8%, materials, sliding 1%, and telecoms down 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks look set to close out a lackluster first quarter with a sprinting finish on Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hiked 134.60 points to 16,457.66. The S&P 500 index gained 14.72 points to 1,872.34, and is now within sight of its all-time high. The NASDAQ leaped 43.23 points to 4,198.99
But it's been a choppy three months. The Dow is still in the red, while the S&P 500 is up more than 1%. The NASDAQ had been the best performing major market index for most of the first quarter, but is now up only slightly after a big selloff in momentum stocks recently.
Investors were cheering a speech by Janet Yellen in Chicago Monday morning in which she maintained the Fed will support the economy "for some time to come."
Airlines have been among the better performing stocks so far. Shares of Delta Air Lines and Southwest are both up around 25%.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, investors hope strong economic data and fading geopolitical risks in Ukraine and beyond will help stocks continue their five-year bull run.
There is little economic or corporate news on the docket Monday, but investors are gearing up for a busy week which culminates with the European Central Bank meeting Thursday and the US government's jobs report on Friday.
Shares of General Motors were down as investors continue to worry about the company's handling of a recall for a flawed ignition switch in several of its models. The stock is off 16% so far this year.
GM CEO Mary Barra will testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday about the problems, which have been blamed for at least 13 fatalities.
BlackBerry shares fell 4% after the struggling smartphone maker was downgraded by several analysts Monday morning. After enjoying an early boost in 2013 on hopes of new CEO John Chen's turnaround strategy, BlackBerry has tanked in recent days despite reporting a narrower-than-expected loss.
Shares of Disney bounced after its movie "Frozen" became the highest grossing animated film of all time after opening big in Japan over the weekend.
Google shares were flat ahead of the tech giant's much anticipated two-for-one stock split tomorrow. Shareholders will get another share for each one they own currently. The stock split was first announced two years ago, but was held up by a legal battle in which some shareholders raised objections.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries slid, upping yields to 2.72% from Friday’s 2.71%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gave up 16 cents to $101.51 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dropped $10.00 to $1,283.30 U.S. an ounce.
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