Stock prices in Toronto forged higher to begin Friday, on strength of utility and real-estate issues.
The S&P/TSX Composite gained 66.98 points to begin the week’s last session at 15,285.29
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.49 cents to 74.78 cents U.S.
Barclays raised the target price on Athabasca Oil to $2.00 from $1.50, after the company announced the acquisition of Statoil’s thermal assets.
Athabasca shares picked up 10 cents, or 5.8%, to $1.84.
Barclays cut the target price, however, on Empire Company to $15.00 from $18.00, to reflect the company’s significant earnings shortfall and reduced the level of potential earnings.
Empire shares faded 28 cents, or 1.8%, to $15.24.
Among utilities, Fortis Inc. gained 43 cents, or 1.1%, to $40.81, while Hydro One took on 10 cents to $23.32.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that foreigners increased their holdings in Canadian instruments to $15.8 billion in October, most of them debt securities, while Canadians added $2.1 billion of foreign securities to their holdings, the lion’s share of them U.S. corporate instruments.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 0.44 points to 730.83
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher in the session’s first hour, with real-estate climbing 1.3%, utilities up 1.2%, and consumer staples better by 1%.
The lone holdout was information technology, sliding 0.8%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded slightly higher Friday amid gains in oil prices and stabilization of the dollar.
The Dow Jones Industrials started the day up 42.47 points to 19,894.71, with 3M and UnitedHealth contributing the most to gains and Goldman Sachs the greatest negative impact on the index.
The S&P 500 inched higher 1.46 points to 2,263.49, with real estate leading all sectors except financials higher.
The NASDAQ composite index added 5.09 points to 5,461.94.
The U.S. dollar index hit 103.56 Thursday, its highest level since Dec. 24, 2002. The greenback was near 103.12 in morning trade Friday, with the euro around $1.042 and the yen near 118.19 yen versus the dollar.
A strong dollar and low oil prices have weighed on U.S. corporate earnings in the last year.
Economically speaking, U.S. housing starts fell a more-than-expected 18.7% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million units. Building permits declined 4.7%.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note moved higher, lowering yields to 2.59% from Thursday’s 2.6%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices resumed their post-OPEC rally, picking up 72 cents to $51.62 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices regained $3.20 to $1,133.30 U.S. an ounce.
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