Monday, December 8, 2008

Roger Biduk - Bay Street Soars Over 400 Points

Roger Biduk writes:

The Toronto stock market posted a gain of more than 400 points on Monday, led by solid advances in energy and financial stocks.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index surged 450.09 points or 5.55 per cent to 8,567.12, while New York's Dow Jones industrial average moved up 298.76 points to 8,934.18.
TSX Venture Exchange moved up 13.61 points to 697.92.

The Canadian dollar climbed 1.06 cents to 79.74 cents U.S. as traders looked ahead to an expected interest-rate cut of at least a half percentage point by the Bank of Canada on Tuesday.

The TSX energy sector moved up 7.5 per cent as oil prices bounced off multi-year lows after the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hinted at a "severe" production cut at OPEC's meeting Dec. 17. Light sweet crude rose $2.90 to US$43.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) shot up $4.75 to $55.61 on the TSX while Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ) gained $2.87 to $42.20.

Financials climbed 4.25 per cent as Royal Bank (TSX:RY) rose $1.10 to $37.50 and CIBC (TSX:CM) advanced $3.52 to $53.27.

The base-metals sector climbed 11 per cent while copper surged 12.45 cents to US$1.498 a pound, sending Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) up 32 cents to $4.25. FNX Mining Co. (TSX:FNX) added 37 cents or 17 per cent to $2.54.

Gold stocks ran up as bullion rose $17.10 to US$769.30 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) gained $2.45 to $30.30.

Other prominent stocks taking the TSX higher Potash Corp., up $9.49 or 14 per cent, to $76.99 while shares in BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) gained $1.80 or 7.9 per cent to $24.65 on a report the telecom has a new auditor's opinion that the company would be solvent after a leveraged buyout by a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
The deal had appeared dead last week after KPMG ruled BCE would not meet a key solvency test after taking on more than $30 billion in debt, as contemplated in the takeover. That solvency test is a condition of the deal.

JLL Partners Inc. of New York has made a bid for the 71 per cent of Patheon Inc. (TSX:PTI) it does not already own, offering US$2 per share for the international drug manufacturer. Patheon shares rocketed $1.12 or 104.6 per cent to C$2.19.

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