The energy sector led the way to a strong advance on the Toronto stock market Monday as massive political unrest in Egypt raised worries about a disruption in oil supplies and pushed crude prices higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 114.41 points to close the last session of January at 13,551.99
The Canadian dollar moved below parity with the U.S. dollar, sliding 0.3 of a cent to 99.87 cents U.S.
The energy sector rose as Cenovus Energy shares gained $1.24 to $34.60 while Suncor Energy climbed $1.42 to $41.46.
Imperial Oil Ltd. reported that its net income increased 50% in the fourth quarter to $799 million, or 94 cents per share. That’s up from $534 million, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier on higher oil prices and improved operations and Imperial shares rose $1.95 to $44.65.
The base metals sector was ahead substantially as copper prices advanced with the March contract on the Nymex up eight cents at $4.45 U.S. a pound. Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. added five cents to $13.50.
Workers at Teck Coal Ltd.’s Elkview operations in southeastern British Columbia are on strike. The more than 700 members of United Steelworkers Local 9346 walked out Sunday at the open pit mine, operated by a subsidiary of Teck Resources Ltd. Teck shares gained $2.79 to $60.65.
The gold sector was the weakest group as Goldcorp Inc. faded 65 cents to $40.19 while Kinross Gold Corp. lost 35 cents to $16.64.
Financials also helped send the TSX higher with TD Bank ahead 48 cents at $74.96. Manulife Financial climbed a dime to $17.45.
In other corporate news, market heavyweight Research In Motion Ltd. weighed on the TSX. Its shares lost $1.17 to $58.99 after India’s home minister said his country will still insist that RIM give it a solution to access corporate e-mail services.
The BlackBerry maker said this month it had given India the means to access its Messenger service ahead of a Jan. 31 target date but reiterated that no changes could be made to allow monitoring of secure corporate emails.
Canadian oil company Sea Dragon Energy Inc. says anti-government protests rocking Egypt have so far had very little effect on its field operations in the country.
In an update aimed at reassuring shareholders, the Calgary-based company said the protests are centred in major cities and "therefore have little or no impact on the company’s field operations in Kom Ombo and northwest Gemsa" in the desert. Sea Dragon shares gained a cent to 24 cents on very heavy volume of 26.2 million shares.
Methanex Corp. said Monday that the commissioning of its new 1.3-million-tonne-per-year methanol facility in Egypt is on schedule despite growing anti-government protests in the country. Its shares slipped 46 cents to $27.22.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported this morning that Canada's economy grew 0.4% in November for the strongest gain since March 2010, thanks to oil and gas extraction. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected gross domestic product to climb by 0.3% after a 0.2% gain in October.
Elsewhere, the industrial product price index rose 0.7% in the month, topping market forecasts of a 0.6% gain and accumulating a 2.9% increase on the year.
It was the fifth consecutive month of increases for producer prices, led by a 4% gain in petroleum and coal products, StatsCan said.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 6.23 points to 2,274.55, while the Nasdaq Canada index was down 7.09 to 742.28.
In Toronto, all but three of the 14 subgroups stayed positive through the day. Energy led the charge, gaining 2.7%, followed by global base metals, up 2.2% and metals and mining, ahead 1.8%.
The three laggards were gold, down 0.8%, industrials, faltering 0.3%, and information technology, 0.1% short of Friday’s close.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks rose Monday as investors focused on the positive earnings news out of Exxon Mobil and rising commodity prices, while continuing to monitor the ongoing political unrest in Egypt.
The Dow Jones Industrials moved 68.23 points higher by the closing bell to 11,891.90.
The S&P 500 was 9.78 points higher to 1,286.12. The tech-heavy Nasdaq regained 13.19 points to 2,700.08.
Energy shares led the Dow higher, led by Exxon Mobil, which reported a 46% jump in fourth-quarter earnings. Chevron rose more than 1.5%. That helped lift the Select Sector Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund, an energy ETF that counts Exxon and Chevron among its top holdings.
Shares of Chesapeake Energy jumped 6.5% after the natural gas producer sold a 33.3% stake to Cnooc Ltd., China's largest producer of offshore oil and natural gas.
Protests in Egypt continued over the weekend, leading rating company Moody's Investors Service to downgrade its rating on the nation's debt to "negative" from "stable".
Stocks are trying to recovery from Friday's dismal trading session, where stocks logged their biggest drop in months following the rising tensions across Egypt.
Technology shares were mixed after Intel said it discovered a manufacturing flaw in one of its chips that would cost the company $300 million U.S. in revenue this quarter.
Intel's stock fell 1.8%, but shares of rival AMD shot up more than 3.5%.
Shares of Pall Corp. rose 11% after the company's chairman and CEO announced plans for retirement late Friday.
Over the weekend, Massey Energy was acquired by rival Alpha Natural Resources in a $7.1-billion U.S. deal. Shares of Massey jumped 11%.
Gannett shares dropped 3.5% after the media company missed revenue forecasts.
On the economic radar, the Commerce Department reported personal spending slightly outpaced expectations last month, but personal income fell short of the forecast.
Personal income rose 0.4% in December, slightly below the 0.5% expected by economists. Personal spending rose 0.7% in December, slightly better than the 0.6% increase that had been forecast.
The Chicago purchasing managers' report on January manufacturing activity unexpectedly rose to a reading of 68.8. Economists had expected the index to fall slightly to a reading of 65.
The most closely watched report of the week comes Friday, when the government releases its January jobs data.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 3.38% from 3.33% late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for February delivery garnered $2.72 to $92.06 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for April delivery fell $7.20 to $1,334.50 U.S. a troy ounce.
