Investors registered relief at the prospect of a conclusion to long-running Greek debt drama, by boosting equity levels Monday.
The S&P/TSX composite index hiked 137.36 points to close the day’s trading at 14,790.48
The Canadian dollar tumbled 0.39 cents to 81.16 cents U.S.
Information technology stocks led the parade of winners, with Constellation Software screaming higher by $19.13, or 3.8%, to $516.94, and Wi-Lan gaining 11 cents, or 3.8%, to $3.04.
Telecoms also scored big, with Manitoba Telecom Services hiking 92 cents, or 3.4%, to $28.06, and Rogers Communications up 81 cents, or 2%, to $42.21.
Health-care stocks were also in the winners’ circle, with Valeant Pharmaceuticals racing ahead $6.69, or 2.4%, to $287.50.
Only gold stocks missed the party, it seems, as Iamgold Corp. was poorer in price by 12 cents, or 4.2%, to $2.71, and NovaGold Resources hesitated 23 cents, or 4.8%, to $4.57.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 1.55 points to 682.34
All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups were up Monday, led by information technology issues, up 2%, while telecoms spiking 1.7%, and health-care up 1.3%.
Repeating: only gold missed out on all the fun, dropping 1%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday, following a global rally in equities, as investors cheered signs of progress in the Greece debt negotiations.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 103.83 points from Friday’s sharp drop – though off its highs of the morning -- to 18,119.79.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and American Express rose more than 1%to be among index leaders.
The S&P 500 index improved 11.87 points to 2,121.86. Financials gained nearly 1% as the second-best performer in the S&P 500.
The NASDAQ rebounded 33.94 points to a new closing high of 5,150.94, topping the 5,143.32 high set on Thursday. Apple closed up 0.8%
In corporate news, Sequential Brands will buy Martha Stewart Living for $6.15 U.S. a share in cash and stock.
Health-care insurers remain in focus. Over the weekend, Cigna rejected Anthem's $47-billion U.S. takeover proposal amid Cigna's and Aetna's attempts to buy Humana.
Energy Transfer Equity fell more than 3.5% following news the energy assets portfolio firm confirmed an unsolicited $48-billion U.S. bid for natural gas firm Williams Companies, according to Reuters. Williams surged more than 24%
In U.S. economic news, existing home sales jumped 5.1% in May to a five-and-a-half-year high.
The Eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers concluded a meeting in Brussels on Monday and will meet again later in the week on the Greek debt crisis.
The cash-strapped country faces a 1.5-billion-euro ($1.7-billion U.S.) payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end of the month.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries dropped sharply, raising yields to 2.38% from Friday’s 2.26%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eked out a gain of seven cents a barrel to $59.68 U.S.
Gold prices dipped $17.50 at $1,184.40 U.S. an ounce.
