Equities in Canada’s biggest market edged higher on Monday, to begin the last full week of 2016, with gains for health-care and gold groups offsetting losses for energy shares as oil prices dipped.
The S&P/TSX Composite acquired 17.46 points to open the day and the week at 15,269.66.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.58 cents to 74.68 cents U.S.
Health-care concerns led the pack, with Valeant Pharmaceuticals gaining 86 cents, or 4.6%, to $19.71.
Toronto-based insurance group Fairfax Financial Holdings has agreed to buy Swiss insurer Allied World Assurance Company Holdings for $4.9 billion in cash and stock. Fairfax will pay owners of Allied World $54.00 per share - $10.00 in cash and $44.00 in Fairfax stock.
Fairfax shares skidded $22.45, or 3.7%, to $592.00.
Onex Corp said on Friday it has agreed to acquire caravan holiday parks operator Parkdean Resorts for £1.35 billion.
Onex shares gained 32 cents to $91.45.
BlackBerry will open an autonomous driving research centre, as it tries to make itself an indispensable under-the-hood piece of the automotive industry's weaponry in the self-driving vehicle arms race.
BlackBerry shares climbed 22 cents, or 2.2%, to $10.33.
Goldman Sachs raised the target price on Bombardier to $1.91 from $1.81. Bombardier shares picked up eight cents, or 3.9%, to $2.13.
Nanotech Security is out with earnings today, expecting a Q4 loss of three cents per share. Nanotech shares dropped two cents each, or 1.4%, to $1.46.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 4.64 points to 730.58
All but two of the 12 TSX subgroups gained ground with health-care galloping 2.8%, gold up 0.7% and information technology gaining 0.6%.
The two lagging groups were energy, fading 0.1%, and financials, off 0.01%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks rose slightly Monday as traders watched for continuation of the post-election market rally.
The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 43.61 points to open at 19,887.02, with Walt Disney the greatest advancer and Merck the greatest laggard.
The S&P 500 gained 4.78 points to 2,262.85, with real-estate and telecoms leading eight sectors higher and financials the greatest decliner.
The NASDAQ composite index gained 17.95 points to 5,455.11
Economically speaking, the flash U.S. Markit Purchasing Managers Index services for December came in at 53.4, down slightly from 54.6 in November.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is set to speak on the job market in the afternoon at a University of Baltimore commencement.
Treasury prices for the 10-year note gained ground, lowering yields to 2.55% from Friday’s 2.6%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped a penny to $51.89 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices improved $1.60 to $1,139 U.S. an ounce.
