Markets in Toronto had a positive day, as the collateral effects from the sale of two major Canadian oil companies sent stocks soaring.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 70.88 points to end the day at 12,230.47
The Canadian dollar poked ahead 0.05 cents to 101.34 cents U.S.
The federal government on Friday approved two high-profile deals. The state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Corp. got the green light for its $15.1-billion purchase of Nexen Inc. And Malaysian state-controlled energy company Petronas can go ahead with its $6-billion acquisition of Progress Energy Resources Corp.
Nexen shot up 13.5% to $26.43 while Progress shares jumped 13.4% to $21.96.
However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it clear that state-owned energy companies will find it extremely difficult to buy up Canadian oilsands producers in future.
There had been concerns that some of those companies could be under heavy selling pressure since they can no longer realistically hope to be snapped up by foreign state-owned enterprises at fat share price premiums.
But price declines were relatively mild. For example, MEG Energy Corp. was down 3.1% to $33.65, Southern Pacific Resource was off two cents to $1.22, Athabasca Oil Corp. was down 25 cents to $10.00 and Canadian Oil Sands gave back 22 cents to $19.78. A glaring exception was Connacher Oil and Gas, which tumbled 17% to 22 cents.
Elsewhere in the energy sector, Spartan Oil Corp. shares gained 34 cents or 7.7% to $4.74 as it announced it has received an unsolicited takeover offer. No other details on the offer have been released. Spartan is active the Cardium light oil play in central Alberta and the Bakken light oil resource play in southeast Saskatchewan.
Precision Drilling Corp. plans to cut capital spending to $485 million in 2013 from approximately $920 million this year while also instituting a quarterly dividend of five cents per share. Its shares were up 42 cents, or 5.8%, to $7.71.
The metals and mining sector gained while copper prices also advanced sharply with the March contract ahead by five cents to $3.71 U.S. a pound. China is the world's biggest consumer of the metal, which is viewed as a global economic barometer. Capstone Mining was 12 cents, or 5.1%, higher to $2.46 while HudBay Minerals gained 56 cents, or 5.7% to $10.33.
The gold sector was up while Iamgold Corp. improved by 23 cents to $10.87 and Barrick Gold Corp. climbed 50 cents to $3.77.
Industrials were also supportive as Canadian Pacific Railway rose $1.94, or 2%, to $99.64
On the economic calendar, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported this morning that the pace of housing starts fell in November for a third straight month.
The agency says there were 17,646 actual starts last month, which translates to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 196,125 units, down from 203,487 in October.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange moved slightly ahead, 0.47 points, to close at 1,186.53
All but one of the 14 Toronto subgroups gained ground on the day, led by the metals and mining group, up 1.9%, global base metals, up 1.4%, and materials, ahead 1%.
The lone laggard was in information technology, sliding 0.2%
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks held modest gains Monday after comments from President Obama on the stalemate over taxes and spending took the wind out of an earlier advance.
The Dow Jones Industrials moved up 14.75 points to close Monday at 13,169.90
HP shares gained 2.5% on unconfirmed reports that activist investor Carl Icahn could take a stake in the computer maker. HP had no comment on the reports and calls to Icahn Enterprises went unanswered. Shares of Cisco and Microsoft were also higher.
McDonald's shares gained ground after the fast food chain said global same-store sales, a key metric, rose 2.4% in November, led by sales growth in the United States.
The S&P 500 inched higher 0.49 points to 1,418.56, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 8.92 points to 2,986.96.
On the corporate front, shares of Ingersoll-Rand fell after the company said it plans to spin off its commercial and residential security businesses into a new company. Ingersoll-Rand also announced a $2-billion U.S. share repurchase program and boosted its quarterly dividend.
Shares of Priceline fell 5% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to hold from buy.
Treasury prices strengthened, lowering yields on the 10-year note to 1.62% from Friday’s 1.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices erased 27 cents to $85.66 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices grew $8.60 an ounce to $1,714.10 U.S.
