The Toronto stock market was slightly higher Monday while traders took in stride Standard & Poor’s downgrade of nine euro-zone countries and focused on Greece’s difficulties in thrashing out a deal with private creditors.
As the clock approached noon, the S&P TSX Composite Index had tacked on 36.11 points to 12,267.17
The Canadian dollar rose 0.65 cents to 98.26 cents U.S., a day before the Bank of Canada makes its next announcement on interest rates. The central bank is widely expected to keep its key rate at 1%.
The industrials sector led TSX decliners with Bombardier Inc. down five cents to $4.36 while Canadian National Railways gave back $1.21 to $77.04.
The energy sector gained ground while Imperial Oil gained 44 cents to $45.69 and Suncor Inc. climbed 22 cents to $32.85.
The gold sector was ahead as Barrick Gold Corp. rose 21 cents to $49.65 and Goldcorp Inc. was up 24 cents to $46.69.
The base metals sector lost ground as March copper added three cents to $3.67 U.S. a pound.
HudBay Minerals declined 11 cents to $10.40 but Teck Resources gained 31 cents to $39.66.
Uranium One Inc. shares ran ahead nine cents to $2.46 after it said it has decided to acquire a 13.9% stake in Mantra Resources and extend its purchase option for the company for $150 million U.S. It also said Monday it produced 10.7 million pounds of uranium and sold 9.9 million pounds for 2011.
In other corporate news, Pembina Pipeline Corp. has agreed to purchase all issued and outstanding shares of Provident Energy Ltd. in a transaction valued at $3.2 billion in shares.
The combined company will have a market capitalization of $7.9 billion, making it one of Canada’s largest publicly traded energy infrastructure companies.
Pembina shares lost $1.14 to $26.76 while Provident shares jumped $1.66 or 17.46% to $11.17.
WestJet shares were off 11 cents to $11.69 as it said it is considering launching a new short-haul regional airline in a move that would extend service to smaller communities and increase traffic to its current network.
Analysts said the S&P downgrades, officially announced Friday after markets closed, had been widely expected, especially in the bond markets.
There was very little shock at S&P's announcement to strip France of its treasured triple-A rating and to cut its view on a raft of other euro countries, including Italy. One bright spot was that Germany, Europe's biggest economy, retained its triple-A rating and had its outlook upgraded to stable from negative.
Also, on Monday, rival ratings agency Moody's says it is maintaining France's top-tier AAA credit rating for now with the outlook stable. S&P rates France's outlook as negative.
A bigger headache for markets at the moment is whether Greece can clinch a deal with its creditors. Last October, Greece's partners in the euro-zone sanctioned a deal whereby Greece's creditors agreed on a deal to reduce the value of their Greek debt holdings so that the country's debt burden is reduced.
The deal with private investors, known as the Private Sector Involvement, or PSI, aims to reduce Greece's debt by $100 billion by swapping private creditors' bonds for new ones with a lower value. It is a key part of a $130-billion international bailout, the second one for Greece.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported this morning that November new motor vehicle sales dipped 1.0% to 137,640 units, partially offsetting gains registered in September and October. Sales fell for both trucks and passenger cars.
Elsewhere, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported this morning that national resale housing activity posted a 1.8% increase from November to December 2011, the fourth straight monthly increase.
Oil faded in price dipped nine cents to $99.72 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $14.40 to $1,645.20 U.S. an ounce.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 1.92 points to 1,534.11, while the Nasdaq Canada index skidded 5.05 points to 392.83
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were up as midday approached. Health-care stocks were 0.8% more robust, materials grew 0.7%, and utilities improved 0.6%
The pair of laggards were industrials, off 0.7%, and global base metal stocks, down 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
