The Toronto stock market registered a solid advance Monday amid strong manufacturing data from the U.S. and Europe.
The S&P/TSX composite index tacked on 90.67 points to greet noon at 13,216.37
The Canadian dollar eked up 0.12 cents to 94.53 cents U.S.
The TSX tech sector advanced, as BlackBerry shares rose 14 cents to $6.56 as the Wall Street Journal reported two high level departures at smartphone maker BlackBerry.
The Journal cites sources as saying BlackBerry's executive vice president in charge of global sales, Rick Costanzo, will be leaving the company by early next year. And Chris Wormald, who was in charge of BlackBerry's mergers and acquisitions strategy, will reportedly be gone by the end of this month. BlackBerry posts earnings on Friday.
Elsewhere, Celestica gained 14 cents to $10.67.
The financials sector rose as Royal Bank climbed 76 cents to $68.99.
Industrials also lifted the TSX as Bombardier improved by four cents to $4.53.
The energy sector was ahead while Imperial Oil rose 46 cents to $45.75.
The base metals sector edged up as March copper added one cent to $3.33 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources was up 25 cents to $24.66.
Primero Mining Corp. has a friendly deal to acquire Brigus Gold Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at about $220 million. The deal values Brigus shares at 91 cents each -- a 45% premium to the market price -- based on the Primero's closing price of $5.22 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.
Brigus shares surged 31.8% to 83 cents and Primero shares fell 43 cents to $4.79.
Panasonic Corp. will assign about 900 patents and patent applications to a new subsidiary of Ottawa-based patent licensing firm Wi-LAN Inc. It didn't provide an estimate on what the portfolio is worth or financial terms of its arrangement with Panasonic. Wi-LAN shares inched up two cents to $3.35.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported that foreign investments in Canadian instruments amounted to $4.4 billion in October, focused on instruments from the corporate sector. Canadian holdings of foreign securities edged lower, led by the sale of U.S. equities.
What’s more, figures released this morning by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) showed national home sales edged 0.1% lower from October to November. CREA also said actual (not seasonally-adjusted) activity was 5.9% above November 2012 levels.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 2.4 points to 892.07
All but two of the 14 TSX subgroups were higher, with gold up 1.4%, health-care, 1.2% haler and financials gaining 1.1%.
The two laggards were utilities, down 0.6%, and real-estate, inching down 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
With the U.S. Federal Reserve's final meeting of the year wrapping up on Wednesday, investors are waiting to see if the central bank will begin to cut back, or taper, its massive stimulus program. But they didn't seem too worried Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 127.83 points to meet lunch hour at 15,883.19
The gains were broad-based, with 27 out of 30 Dow members higher, and more than 80% of the S&P 500 booking gains.
The S&P 500 index added 10.90 points to 1,786.22. The NASDAQ leaped 25.70 points to 4,026.68
In corporate news, AIG rose after the insurer reached an agreement to sell its airline leasing business to AerCap Holdings for $5.4 billion U.S. AerCap surged on the news as well.
Shares of Sprint rose following reports from The Wall Street Journall that it was working on a deal to acquire T-Mobile.
Google agreed to buy Boston Dynamics, a builder of military robots.
The Fed's bond buying has supported stock markets around the world, and more investors believe the Fed will move sooner rather than later as economic data continue to improve.
The Fed has been pumping trillions into the economy since December 2008. It's been injecting $85 billion U.S. per month since September 2012 through its third round of bond purchases, a program known as quantitative easing.
Commodity prices advanced as U.S. factory production rose a solid 0.6% November, led by a surge in auto output.
Financial information company Markit says its purchasing managers index for the euro-zone beat expectations, rising to a 31-month high of 52.7 from 51.6 in November. At the same time, the services PMI slipped to a four-month low of 51 from 51.2.
Other data showed that China's manufacturing sector grew at a slightly slower pace in December, according to a preliminary survey by HSBC. Its flash purchasing managers' index slowed to a three-month low of 50.5.
However, the reading was still high enough to indicate that China's economy is continuing to recover since slowing to 7.5% growth in the second quarter.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries nicked higher, lowering yields to 2.86% from Friday’s 2.87%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices improved 89 cents to $97.48 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $13.40 to $1,248.00 U.S. an ounce.
