The Toronto stock market finished stronger Monday, as a stronger U.S. dollar pressured prices for oil and metals and worries about Europe’s debt crisis continued to discourage buyers.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index picked up 67.75 points to end the day at 12,857.70
The Canadian dollar added 0.03 cents to 102.06 cents U.S.
The greenback gained against most currencies, particularly the euro, as risk-averse traders bought into the American currency after a weekend meeting of eurozone finance ministers failed to agree on an immediate release of bailout funds to Greece.
Though the finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro agreed to hand over the next bailout instalment, worth euro12 billion ($17 billion U.S.), they said they would only do that if the Greek Parliament backed further austerity measures.
But there is great uncertainty as to whether the Greek government can push through those new measures.
The gold sector was up as Goldcorp Inc. climbed 99 cents to $46.39 and Barrick Gold Corp. was up six cents at $42.29.
The industrials sector rose with Canadian National Railways ahead 68 cents to $74.09.
Bombardier Aerospace has signed an unnamed “major network carrier” to take delivery of 10 its new CSeries aircraft in a deal valued at $616 million. Its shares dipped six cents to $6.92.
The energy sector backed off with Suncor Energy down 20 cents to $36.97 and Canadian Natural Resources fell 16 cents to $37.83.
The base metals sector gained ground, even as metal prices retreated, with the July copper contract on the Nymex down six cents at $4.05 U.S. a pound. First Quantum recovered 27 cents to $119.28.
Teck Resources Ltd. shares fell 54 cents to $43.12 as the company reduced its coal production guidance for the second quarter and said unit mining costs would be greater as a result of higher labour and other expenses.
Teck now expects coal sales in the second quarter at the low end of its previously announced guidance range of 5.5 million to six million tonnes as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Research In Motion continued to be a drag on the TSX following a disappointing earnings forecast delivered late last week. Its shares were down $1.83 to $25.41 after plunging about 20% Friday.
The financials sector was mainly lower with Royal Bank shares up 21 cents to $54.54, after the bank said it faces a $1.6-billion loss as it sheds its U.S. retail banking operations.
Royal Bank is selling the U.S. assets to the PNC Financial Services Group Inc. for about $3.62 billion U.S. The loss includes an estimated $1.3-billion writeoff of the retail operations.
In other corporate news, Boston-based Atlantic Power Corp. announced Monday that it plans to acquire Capital Power Income L.P. in cash and stock deal that values the company at some $1.1 billion. Atlantic Power shares lost seven cents to $14.89 while Capital Power units gained 65 cents to $19.28.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange skidded 15.67 points, however, to 1,882.27 while the Nasdaq Canada index dropped 9.57 points to 514.64
In Toronto, all but two of the 14 subgroups advanced on the day. Telecoms led the pack by gaining 1.7%, while materials surged 0.9% and industrials were 0.8% to the good.
The laggards were information technology, down 0.7%, and energy, off 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks managed decent gains Monday, even as investors remained cautious about Greece's debt crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average raced 76.02 points higher to register at 12,080.40. Financial stocks JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America were the biggest laggards, while DuPont and Caterpillar led the gains.
The S&P 500 gained 6.86 points to 1,278.36. The Nasdaq Composite progressed 13.18 points to 2,629.66. Biogen Idec was the best performers on both indexes, with shares rising more than 4%.
Ford Motor Co. plans to invest $1 billion U.S. to revamp its struggling Lincoln brand, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday citing dealers briefed on the plan. Shares of the automaker rose 1.4%.
PNC Financial Services Group said early Monday that it will buy the U.S. retail banking division of Royal Bank of Canada for $3.45 billion U.S. Shares of PNC were down 1.8%, while shares of Royal Bank edged up 0.1%.
Shares of land driller Nabors Industries fell 2.6%, after the company trimmed its second-quarter outlook.
Chinese social networking site Renren is slated to report results after the market close. Shares of Renren, which went public last month, rose 9%. The stock has declined 50% from its IPO price.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury lost ground, with yields making their way up to 2.96%, from Friday’s 2.94%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices reclaimed 26 cents to $93.27 U.S. a barrel
Gold futures for August delivery gained $2.90 to settle at $1,542.00 U.S. an ounce.
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