Telecoms gave a slight lift to the Toronto stock market Monday afternoon while BlackBerry shares were little changed on word that a consortium led by the company's biggest shareholder plans to take the company private.
The S&P/TSX composite index poked ahead 4.71 to end Monday at 12,811.18
The Canadian dollar gained 0.22 cents to 97.24 cents U.S.
BlackBerry has signed a letter of intent with the group led by Fairfax Financial that involves shareholders getting $9 U.S. a share. The Waterloo, Ont.,-based company's shares dipped a penny to $9.07, while Fairfax shares took on $3.82, or 0.9%, to $419.67.
Word of the proposed sale came as BlackBerry stock sunk as much as seven per cent in the morning, on top of a 16% plunge Friday after the company warned of a huge second-quarter loss of almost $1 billion amid plunging sales of its new smartphones. It's also slashing about 4,500 jobs.
BlackBerry releases its quarterly results Friday.
The TSX telecom sector was up on news that Telus, Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Quebecor's Videotron were among the prominent telecom companies that have put down a deposit to take part in Canada's wireless spectrum auction next January.
Industry Canada says that a total of 15 participants have put down the deposit for the auction, all domestic. Telus led the pack, up 85 cents to $35.43.
BCE shares added 58 cents to $44.51, while Rogers shares tallied 64 cents to $45.48, and Quebecor shares gained eight cents to $24.02
The gold sector was up slightly while Kinross Gold dipped three cents to $5.24.
The base metals sector slipped as December copper lost two cents to $3.30 U.S. a pound. HudBay Minerals gave back 26 cents to $8.35.
Among energy plays, Cenovus Energy added a penny to $30.70.
Elsewhere on the corporate front, Calgary-based fertilizer producer Agrium Inc. said its third-quarter results will be negatively affected by soft prices and lower sales volumes in its wholesale operations. It says wholesale earnings before interest and tax will be about $200 million lower than in the same period last year.
Agrium also said it will increase its dividend by 50% to $3 U.S. a share per year but its shares fell $2.95, or 3.2%, to $89.43.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange settled 1.20 points to 944.90
Of the 14 Toronto subgroups, eight ended the day higher, led by telecoms, up 1.2%, while consumer discretionaries added 1% and information technology stocks moved 0.7% higher.
The six laggards were weighed most heavily by health-care stocks, down 2%, while materials slid 1.4%, and gold lost 1.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors were coy Monday as lawmakers in Washington continue to battle over a budget deal.
The Dow Jones Industrials shed 49.71 points to end the day at 15,401.40
The S&P 500 index faded 8.06 points to 1,701.85. The NASDAQ dropped 9.44 points to 3,765.29.
BlackBerry announced Monday afternoon that its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial, was leading a group to acquire the troubled company for $9 U.S. a share. After a brief trading halt, shares initially surged 5% to above the $9 takeover price. But the stock quickly trimmed those gains and was up less than 1% in late-afternoon trading.
The $9 price tag is slightly above where shares traded earlier Monday, but below where the stock was Friday just before BlackBerry shocked investors with the news that it would slash 40% of its workforce and also warned of a $1-billion U.S. quarterly loss.
Apple shares jumped after the company said it sold a record nine million iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C devices worldwide during the first three days the phone went on sale. Apple was the biggest winner in the S&P 500.
Financial stocks were among the worst performers, with shares of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase andBank of America down more than 2%.
Monday marks the first day that Bank of America, as well as Hewlett-Packard and Alcoa are no longer included in the Dow. But the newest components weren't helping the Dow's performance. Goldman Sachs was the Dow's biggest laggard, while Nike and Visa were down about 1%.
Netflix shares also slid, but only after hitting a record high earlier in the day. On Sunday, director David Fincher won an Emmy Award for his work on Netflix's "House of Cards" series. The Emmy win was the first for a TV show that only airs online.
Carl Icahn took a 10% stake in the streaming video company in October. But as recently as two weeks ago, the billionaire investor said he hadn't sold a single share of the company.
Unless a compromise is reached during the next week, the government is poised to shut down at the start of October. While investors don't typically worry too much about a shutdown, the political wrangling and gridlock may cause some volatility in markets, according to experts.
The U.S. Federal Reserve also remained in focus, following last week's decision to hold of on its plans to taper its bond buying program.
In a speech Monday, New York Fed President William Dudley said he would "like to see news that makes me more confident that we will see continued improvement in the labor market" before cutting back on the central bank's stimulus program.
Prices for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained, lowering yields to 2.71% from Friday’s 2.73%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell back $1.24 to $103.51 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dipped $9.70 at $1,322.80 U.S. an ounce.
