Haven't seen "rocketed higher" and "gold" used in same sentence for quite a while.
Toronto stocks end mixed, but
TORONTO, July 18 (Reuter) - Toronto stocks ended mixed on Friday, snapping a string of six record sessions, but avoiding Wall Street's selloff as gold stocks rocketed higher on strong bullion prices.
The TSE 300 Composite Index fell 16.94 points to close at 6738.19. Trading was brisk on volume of 89 million shares worth C$1.56 billion.
``We had gold running today and that was making our market look good relative to the U.S. market,'' said Montreal-based strategist Bill Ram. Profit-takers lopped more than 130 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday.
POSSIBLE LOST DATA Toronto's gold group jumped 283 points, or 3.5 percent, as gold prices rallied for a second day led by heavy fund short-covering in gold.
COMEX August gold closed up US$4.90 an ounce at US$329.60. August gold added US$6 on Thursday.
The only other gaining sector was pipelines. Conglomerates and transportation led declines in 12 of 14 sub-groups.
Ram said the fundamentals still pointed to further gains for Canadian equities. ``Until something happens in terms of inflation, interest rates or corporate profits, we're still in good shape, give or take a few shakeouts,'' he said.
HOT STOCKS ---
Among Toronto's top gainers, CT Financial Services Inc gained 3 to close at 43 in very light volume. CT and its majority owner, Imasco Ltd, denied a published report that the financial services firm may be sold to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Imasco added 1.10 to 42.75.
In golds, Barrick Gold Corp rose 1 to 31.65, while Euro-Nevada Mining Corp Ltd gained 3.30 to 43.10.
BCE Inc fell 0.70 to 42.25 on 1.7 million shares after its Bell Canada unit announced further job cuts. |
