Equities in Canada’s biggest centre moved tentatively into the green by noon Thursday, though losses for materials and banking stocks canceled out gains for energy companies as oil prices rose.
The S&P/TSX Composite moved doggedly ahead 2.39 points to greet noon at 14,799.14
The Canadian dollar slid 0.12 cents at 77.49 cents U.S.
Among the most influential gainers was Enbridge which rose 3.7% to $58.52. The pipeline company's stock has jumped about 12% since announcing a major acquisition earlier this week.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, fell, while the financials group also slipped marginally.
Potash Corp. fell 2.1% to $22.29.
Among financials, Royal Bank of Canada dropped 0.6% to $80.89 and Toronto-Dominion Bank was also off 0.6%, at $58.16.
TD's CEO said on Wednesday that the bank is keen on acquisition opportunities, in Canada and the United States.
CGI Group declined 2.4% to $62.81 after the IT and business process services company announced the retirement of its CEO.
Industrials fell, with Canadian Pacific Railway down 1.3% at $198.38 and Canadian National Railway off 0.7% at $83.36.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that municipalities issued building permits worth $6.5 billion in July, up 0.8% from the previous month, while the new housing price index rose 0.4% in July compared with the previous month, driven mainly by new housing prices in the combined region of Toronto and Oshawa
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange moved forward 5.73 points to 827.62
All but two of 12 TSX subgroups were lower by noon, with gold skidding 1.2%, materials fading 0.8%, and consumer staples falling 0.7%.
The two gainers were energy, up 1.8%, while health-care eked up 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
Equities south of the border traded lower Thursday, despite a surge in oil prices, as investors digested the European Central Bank's latest monetary policy decision and remarks made by its president, Mario Draghi.
The Dow Jones Industrials skidded 38.42 points to 18,487.72, with Apple leading decliners and Goldman Sachs the top advancer.
The S&P 500 withered 3.96 points to 2,182.20, with information technology leading seven sectors lower and energy the top riser.
The NASDAQ Composite slid 19.55 points to 5,264.38, as Apple slid more than 2%.
Apple's stock fell a day after unveiling its latest iPhone model. On Thursday, the firm said it will not release pre-order numbers for the phone, saying those figures are "no longer a representative metric for our investors and consumers."
Investors also analyzed economic data from the U.S., with weekly jobless claims coming in 4,000 lower at 259,000.
Other data released Thursday included the Energy Information Administration's release of weekly crude inventories, which showed a drawdown of 14.5 million barrels last week.
The ECB kept interest rates unchanged and did not announce an extension of its quantitative easing program. Draghi said in a news conference the central bank did not discuss an extension of said program, but added the program will run until the end of next March or beyond, if necessary.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were down, boosting yields to 1.59% from Wednesday’s 1.54%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on $1.66 at $47.16 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices ditched $4.90 at $1,344.30 U.S. an ounce.
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