The Toronto stock market rose 100 points and change Friday amid rising oil and mining stocks as a weak American currency helped send oil prices surging and gold to fresh record highs.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index zoomed 100.66 points higher to end the day’s trading at 14,208.43.
Higher commodity prices and the faltering greenback pushed the Canadian dollar up 0.14 of a cent to 104.47 cents U.S. after earlier rising to almost 105 cents — the highest in 3 1/2 years.
The energy sector rose as crude prices soared to 2 1/2-year highs as fighting in Libya damaged oilfields in the OPEC country. Suncor Energy improved $1.40 to $44.69 while Canadian Natural Resources climbed 88 cents to $47.28.
The gold sector rose as Barrick Gold Corp. was up 48 cents at $51.98 and Goldcorp Inc. advanced $1.14 to $52.07.
The base metals sector gained ground as the May copper contract in New York rose eight cents to $4.50 U.S. a pound. Equinox Minerals rose 17 cents to $7.67 and HudBay Minerals gained 27 cents to $16.72.
Copper prices have risen more than 5% this week on hopes for higher demand.
The tech sector was the weakest group with Research In Motion Ltd. down 47 cents at $52.42.
In corporate news, telecom company Cogeco Inc. said second-quarter profits rose 1.3% to $10.6 million, as revenue grew 6.6% to $350.6 million.
Cogeco Cable reported separately that its revenue was up 5% to $336.6 million, while its net income rose 4.6% to $31.2 million or 64 cents per share.
Both companies missed expectations and Cogeco Inc. shares were 32 cents lower at $42.10 while Cogeco Cable added 30 cents to $44.18.
Onex Corp. and its affiliates plan to sell about $257 million U.S. worth of their shares in Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. through a public offering. Spirit, a former manufacturing unit of Boeing based in Wichita, Kan., said Toronto-based Onex would maintain voting control after the sale. Onex shares slipped three cents to $33.72.
Bauer Performance Sports Ltd. says its underwriters have bought $2.6 million worth of additional shares, far less than they were entitled to purchase as part of the company’s initial public offering.
The hockey and lacrosse equipment manufacturer said Friday that its underwriters purchased 350,000 additional shares at a price of $7.50 per share. Those shares were up a dime at $7.20.
On the economic ledger, Statistics Canada reported that the economy shed 1,500 jobs for the first time since last September, although the unemployment rate did manage to slip to 7.7% from 7.8% the previous month. Economists had expected an overall gain of about 30,000 jobs during March.
There was also cheery news from the Canadian housing sector.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for all types of housing rose to 188,800 units nationally in March, due to multiple dwelling starts in urban areas and single-unit starts in rural areas.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 13.25 points to 2,388,79, while the Nasdaq Canada index was flat at 763.27
In Toronto, all but three of the 14 subgroups were higher on the day. Gold and energy were 1.7% better each, and health-care improved 1.4%.
The three laggards were industrials, down 0.6%, information technology, off 0.1%, and consumer discretionaries, down 0.04%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks dropped on Friday, as oil and gold prices spiked and investors await news about the pending government shutdown.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 29.44 points to 12,380.
The S & P 500 deducted 5.34 points to 1,328.17. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 15.73 points, to 2,793.30
Commodities and materials stocks were among the strongest performers, with shares of Occidental Petroleum and Murphy Oil up more than 2% each as oil rallied.
Oil prices surged to nearly $113 U.S. a barrel Friday, a day after Japan was hit with another earthquake. At the same time, the price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline rose 1.4 cents overnight to a nationwide average of $3.74 U.S., according to motorist group AAA.
Wall Street is also bracing for the start of first-quarter earnings with results from Alcoa on Monday.
Shares of Expedia surged more than 11% after the travel site operator announced late Thursday that it planned to split itself into two companies. One will be for TripAdvisor and another for its other Expedia businesses, which include Hotels.com and Hotwire.
Seagate Technology shares jumped nearly 9% after the company said late Thursday it will begin paying a dividend for the first time.
The federal government faces a shutdown unless Congress and the White House reach agreement on a budget for the remainder of fiscal 2011 by midnight ET. Negotiators worked Friday on a spending plan for the rest of the current fiscal year, after a fourth White House meeting in 48 hours between President Obama and congressional leaders failed to reach an agreement.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that in the event of a shutdown, the SEC will function with "an extremely limited number of staff," and only basic investor services will be available.
The SEC will continue to accept securities filings, but available services related to filings will be limited. The SEC also said it will continue to investigate fraud and securities violations, but may only be able to respond to a limited number of incidents.
On the economic front, the Commerce Department said wholesale inventories rose 1% in February, in line with economists' expectations.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury slid, raising yields to 3.57% from Thursday’s 3.55%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for February delivery was up $2.59 to $112.84 U.S. a barrel.
Precious metals also rallied, with gold going above $1,471 U.S. an ounce. Silver prices rose to more than $40 U.S. an ounce.
