Roger Biduk; TSX Higher at Midday Led by Base-Metals

Roger Biduk writes:

Bullish traders are kicking off 2009 trading by pushing the Toronto stock market sharply higher.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was held aloft by a strong triple-digit gain for a fourth session, up 134.04 points to 9,121.74, and held back by declines in financial and consumer staples stocks.
The TSX ended 2008 down 35 per cent for the year - the second-worst year ever, compared with a 37 per cent decline in 1931.
The TSX Venture Exchange added 18.02 points to 815.04. The CDN$ edged up a tenth of a cent to 82.2 cents US.

The battered TSX base-metals sector, down 68 per cent last year, was up more than 11 per cent in late morning trading. Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX: TCK.B.TO) rose 81 cents to $6.83 and FNX Mining (TSX: FNX.TO) surged 81 cents or 27 per cent to $3.85.

The Toronto financial sector, down 38.5 per cent in '08, was down a slight 0.35 per cent with Scotiabank (TSX: BNS.TO) down 35 cents to $32.96 and Manulife Financial (TSX: MFC.TO) down 39 cents to $20.41.

The energy sector was up almost four cent as the February crude contract in New York gained 36 cents to US$44.96 a barrel. Petro-Canada (TSX: PCA.TO) rose $1.80 to $28.52 and EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA.TO) gained $1.97 to $58.93.
Oil surged more than $5 a barrel Wednesday after Russia threatened to cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine. Russia followed through with that threat Thursday, though both countries pledged to keep supplies flowing to the rest of Europe.

The consumer staples sector was down almost one per cent as Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX: SC.TO) gave back $1.25 to $46.80.

NovaGold Resources Inc. (TSX: NG.TO) shares ran up 20 cents to $1.97 after Electrum Strategic Resources LLC of New York bought a 30 per cent stake in the Vancouver-based company for US$60 million.
High River Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: HRG.TO) shares retreated 3.5 cents or 24 per cent to 11 cents is looking to float more equity or debt while reporting a cash shortfall amid ongoing production troubles in Africa and Russia.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index vaulted 4.6 per cent. Markets in Japan, mainland China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand were closed.
Britain's FTSE 100 was up 2.23 per cent, Germany's DAX index was up 3.1 per cent, and France's CAC-40 rose 3.35 per cent.

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