Bay Street stocks extended their advance Thursday afternoon after strong manufacturing data fueled optimism of a sustained global economic recovery.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index grew 113.33 points to 12,151.06, for a jump on the week of 193.69 points or 1.6%.
The index had been treading water in the past couple of weeks, since climbing above the 12,000 level in mid-March after a gap of 17 months.
Canada's biggest oil and gas company Suncor Energy gained 3.8% to close the week at $34.30. Canadian Natural Resources added 3.9% to $78.11 and Encana rose 1.2% to $31.97.
Among the shares of gold miners, Iamgold advanced 6.8% to $14.42 and Red Back Mining gained 3.4% to $21.45.
Mercator Minerals shed 7.5% to $2.36 after reporting a loss of $17.58 million U.S. for fiscal 2009.
The Diversified Metals Index added strength, with Equinox Minerals rising 7.6% to $4.12 and Quadra Mining up 3.7% to $16.13.
Research In Motion surrendered 8.3% to $68.98, dragging the information technology sector lower. The BlackBerry maker's quarterly earnings and revenues missed forecasts.
Open Text Corp. eased 1.3% to $47.81. Industry analyst and strategic consulting firm Branham Group ranked Open Text as the top Canadian software company for a second successive year.
In the telecom sector, BCE rose 1.7% to $30.35 and Manitoba Telecom Services gained 2.4% to $32.67.
Media production company DHX Media, which announced signing new broadcast license deals with Boomerang Latin America and Nickelodeon Australia for one of its shows, rose 5.8% at $1.45.
The Canadian dollar pushed toward parity with its American counterpart, gaining 0.67 cents to 99.15 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were higher on the day. Gold led the festivities with a 3.5% surge, followed by energy’s 3.2% flight, and a 2.9% improvement by metals and mining issues.
The three laggards were information technology, which got bruised 2.1%, while health-care stocks suffered 0.7% and industrials trailed the previous day's close by 0.5%.
The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 25.99 points to 1,602.54, a jump of 42.76 points or 2.7% over the week. The Nasdaq Canada index slid, however, 35.36 points to 764.48.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, The Dow and S&P 500 ended at fresh 18-month highs Thursday, but tech concerns limited the Nasdaq composite's gains ahead of a long weekend.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 70.44 points, or 0.7%, ending at 10,927.07, its highest close since Sept. 26, 2008, when it ended the session at 11,143.13. The blue chips climbed 76.71 points, or 0.7%, on the week.
The S&P 500 tacked on 8.67 points to 1,178.10, a gain of 11.51 points or about 1% over four trading days. The Nasdaq grew 10.70 points to 2,402.58, a weekly improvement of 7.45 points, or 0.3%.
Stocks rose through the early afternoon as investors welcomed reports showing the pace of job losses is slowing and manufacturing is picking up both in the U.S. and abroad.
But the advance lost steam as investors stepped back in the last few hours before a long holiday weekend. Stock markets will be closed for Good Friday, although Treasury markets will have a shortened session.
Weaker-than-forecast readings on private-sector employment and manufacturing dragged on stocks Wednesday at the end of an up quarter, in which the Dow gained 4.1%, the S&P 500 gained 4.9% and the Nasdaq gained 5.7%.
Stocks have been on the rise since mid- February, as worries about a global debt crisis have given way to renewed optimism about the economic recovery. All three major stock indexes have risen in six of the last seven weeks.
On Thursday, reports showed that weekly jobless claims continued to slip, U.S. manufacturing continued grew at the fastest pace since 2004 and construction spending retreated. Reports coming out of China and the United Kingdom showed manufacturing activity picked up the pace in March.
As noted above, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion slipped after it posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that rose from a year earlier, but missed forecasts due to weaker-than-expected phone shipments.
The company also issued a fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue forecast that was better than expected. But shares fell Thursday as analysts and investors expressed worries that the company is not keeping up with Apple and Google.
Primerica, Citigroup's soon-to-be spun off life insurance division rallied more than 20% in its first day of trading as a public company.
General Motors and Ford Motor were among the automakers reporting improved sales in March, although forecasts were short of more bullish analyst estimates released earlier in the month.
Ford said sales rose 40% versus earlier forecasts for a gain of 55%. GM said sales rose 21% versus forecasts for a gain of 27%.
Overall auto industry sales were expected to rise sharply in March in comparison to a weak period a year earlier.
Economically speaking, the Institute for Supply Management reported the country's manufacturing sector expanded for an eighth straight month in March, with its index of activity rising to 59.6%, topping expectations.
Elsewhere, the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance for the first time fell last week, matching the lowest level since August 2008, the Labor Department said.
There were 439,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended March 27, down 6,000 from an upwardly revised 445,000 the previous week. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to dip to 440,000 in the week.
Separately, a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. showed that planned job cuts accelerated in March.
Employers announced plans to cut 67,611 jobs in March, Challenger said. That's up 61% from February, when 42,090 jobs were lost, the lowest level in nearly four years.
The price of the benchmark 10-year note sagged, thus raising the yield to 3.86% from Wednesday’s 3.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil gained $1.33 to $85.09 U.S.
Gold prices soared $12 to $1,127 U.S. an ounce.
