The Toronto stock market climbed back into positive territory Thursday afternoon, led by advances in mining stocks that have sold off this week amid signs of slowing economic growth around the world.
The S&P/TSX index gained 49.05 points to end Thursday’s trading at 11,996.34, after sinking to a five-month low on Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.05 cents at 97.48 cents U.S.
This week has been a very choppy one on the TSX, which sustained triple-digit slides Monday and Wednesday. Losses were led by steep drops in mining stocks as commodity prices retreated after the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth to 3.3% this year from its forecast in January of 3.5%.
The IMF data deepened pessimism about the strength of the global recovery as data released earlier in the week had shown growth in China slowing earlier this year and left the TSX down about 3.5% year to date.
The gold sector advanced after a rising U.S. dollar and the prospect of troubled euro-zone countries selling off part of their gold reserves to tackle debt problems have sent the precious metal to its lowest levels in over two years, with prices falling $140 U.S. on Monday alone.
Goldcorp Inc. gained 64 cents to $28.59.
Barrick Gold shares added 27 cents to $18.44 even after Moody’s Investors Service placed the miner under review for a potential ratings downgrade.
The move came after a Chilean court last week ordered a halt to construction at Barrick’s $8-billion Pascua-Lama project due to environmental concerns. Barrick shares are down about 30% since April 5.
Copper, viewed as an economic bellwether, continued to plumb 18-month lows because of falling demand prospects. On Thursday, the May copper contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange shed early losses to rise two cents to $3.20 U.S. a pound. Copper has fallen about 12% year to date.
The base metals sector was up after steep losses on Monday and Wednesday. Teck Resources gave back 30 cents to $25.12 while First Quantum Minerals gained 67 cents to $16.10.
The energy sector was up, as Cenovus Energy advanced six cents to $28.77.
EnCana Corp. ran up 55 cents to $19.44 as natural gas futures rose 19 cents, or 4.5%, to $4.41 U.S. per 1,000 cubic feet as inventories grew less than expected last week. The last time natural gas hit that level was July 2011.
Techs led TSX decliners Thursday with Celestica down 13 cents to $7.90 while BlackBerry dropped 49 cents to $13.80.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange improved 9.34 points to conclude Thursday at 932.94
All but three of the 14 Toronto subgroups were positive on the day, led by gold, up 3%, materials, better by 2.4%, and the metals and mining group, ahead 1.8%.
The three laggards were information technology, down 1.6%, consumer discretionaries, down 0.6%, and financials, down 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks slid for a second day Thursday, with technology and financial shares leading the way.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 81.45 points to close out at 14,537.10
The S&P 500 index dropped 10.37 points to 1,541.64. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite flopped 38.31 points to 3,166.36
Morgan Stanley reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, but weakness in traditional trading revenue pushed shares down 4%. Bank of America, which tumbled nearly 5% Wednesday after missing first-quarter earnings estimates, sank another 3% Thursday, making it the biggest loser on the Dow.
On the tech front, Nokia's stock price dropped 13% after the Finnish cell phone company reported a 20% drop in quarterly sales.
And while SanDisk reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for the first-quarter, shares of the company declined more than 7%, making SanDisk the biggest loser in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.
eBay shares were also under pressure, falling nearly 6% after the online-auction site issued weak second-quarter guidance.
Apple's shares remained lower a day after its stock fell nearly 6%.Shares dropped below $390 U.S. Thursday, the lowest since December 2011. Apple was most recently hampered by a negative sales forecast from iPhone supplier Cirrus Logic.
Techs will remain in focus, as IBM, Google and Microsoft were all scheduled to report earnings after the close.
While technology stocks were largely weighing on the broader market, Verizon bucked the trend. Shares of the company jumped more than 3% after it beat earnings forecasts.
Also on the bright side, PepsiCo shares climbed 3% on better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
In economic news, the government said initial jobless claims increased by 4,000 to 352,000 in the week ended April 13. That was slightly below forecasts.
Prices on the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained more ground, lowering yields to 1.68% from Wednesday’s 1.70%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices recouped $1.67 to $88.35 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained back five dollars to $1,387.70 U.S. an ounce
