By Gregory Thomas, The Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, May 01, 2008Stock markets in Canada rallied Thursday despite slumping commodity prices as a sell off in energy stocks sent traders bargain hunting for banks, railroads, and communication companies.
The S&P/TSX composite gained 128.77 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 14,065.81. The S&P/TSX venture composite climbed 67.9 points, or 2.8 per cent, to 2,480.70. Crude oil slid 94 cents to $112.52 US a barrel for the June contract. Gold shed $14.20, or 1.6 per cent, to $850.90 US as the U.S. dollar continued its recovery, rising 1.2 per cent against the euro and pushing the Canadian dollar down 0.71 cents to 98.11 cents U.S.
The S&P/TSX financials group gained more than two per cent, following on a banking rally on Wall Street. CIBC added $2.58, or 3.5 per cent, to $76.75, its highest level in nearly three months. The Royal Bank gained $1.18, or 2.5 per cent, to $49.20. TSX Group, operator of the Montreal options exchange as well as the TSX and the venture board, jumped $3.37, or eight per cent, to $45.67.
Shares of Vancouver-based GLG Life Tech jumped 60 cents, or 20 per cent, to $3.65. The company said it signed a strategic alliance agreement with the grain handling giant Cargill, the second-largest private company in the U.S. GLG said it will sell Cargill up to 93 per cent of its production of a sweetener derived from stevia extract at its production facility in China. GLG expects the value of the deal to approach $200 million US in the first 3 years.
InterOil jumped $3.44, or 23 per cent to $22.34 on news of a natural gas discovery on its offshore license in Papua New Guinea. The company didn't quantify the success of the shot, saying only that drillers experienced a gas kick and a flow of gas and gas liquids to surface that they circulated and flared, before preparing to go deeper.
Venezuela continued to wreak havoc on mining exploration. Crystallex International slumped six cents to 86 cents, bringing losses to nearly 50 per cent since the government denied its mining permit application. Gold Reserve sank 40 cents, or 14 per cent, to $2.40, falling 35 per cent since Tuesday.
Shares of Magna International jumped $5.85, or eight per cent, to $80.10. First-quarter earnings dropped five per cent to $207 million, or $1.78 a share from a year earlier, but results at the Canadian auto parts maker handily beat Street expectations of $1.51 a share, and sales grew three per cent to $6.62 billion.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 189.87 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 13,010, the S&P 500 index added 23.75, or 1.7 per cent, to 1,409.34, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 67.91, or 2.8 per cent, to 2,480.71.
Shares of Clorox climbed $5.24, or ten per cent, to $58.24 US, for their biggest gain in eight years after the maker of bleach and Glad garbage bags beat the street with Q3 earnings of $100 million US, or 71 cents a share. Rising corn and soybean costs helped send profits down 22 per cent from a year earlier, but higher sales of new green environmental products and rising international sales helped improve the bottom line. In late trading Sun Microsystems fell 13 per cent to $13.92 US from its closing level of $16.33 US. The maker of the Java computer operating system reported a third-quarter net loss of $34 million US, or 4 cents a share, compared with earnings of $67 million, or 7 cents a year earlier
Post from : www.canada.com
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