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December 21, 1998
Canadian Stocks
Oil Slumps as Stocks Rise
TORONTO -- Stocks rose Monday with the end of tax-loss selling season, as U.S. stocks also ended higher despite the impeachment of President Clinton.
The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index rose 27.68 to 6381.00. Volume reached 126.7 million shares worth 1.9 billion Canadian dollars, compared with Friday's total of 149 million shares worth C$2.1 billion. Declining issues outpaced advances, 551 to 488, and nine of the 14 stock groups rose.
In New York, the January gold price fell 10 U.S. cents to US$289.40 an ounce. Barrick Gold lost 70 Canadian cents to C$29.40 and Placer Dome fell 50 cents to C$17.85.
Oil stocks were hit hard. The January crude oil price fell to a 12-year low of US$10.35 early in the day after the U.S. ended its military attacks against Iraq on the weekend. Crude prices bounced back a little in the afternoon, but that wasn't enough to pull the oil and gas subindex out of a tailspin. The subindex ended down 2%. Among the biggest decliners were Gulf Canada Resources, off 32 cents to C$3.58, and Ranger Oil, off 50 cents to C$6.45.
Some see this as a buying opportunity. "I'm buying oil stocks," said Brendan Caldwell, of Caldwell Securities Investment Management in Toronto, citing Petro-Canada and Pengrowth Energy Trust as two of his interests.
Among individual blue chips, networking firm Northern Telecom added 30 cents to C$73.80, and competitor Newbridge Networks gained C$2.55 to C$44.60. Networking stocks in the U.S. rose as Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette raised its 12-month share-price target on Cisco Systems to US$120 from US$80. BCE, Canada's largest telecommunications firm and Nortel's largest shareholder, gained C$1.20 to C$55.15.
Conglomerate Canadian Pacific fell 40 cents to C$30.25, transportation company Laidlaw climbed 15 cents to C$15.45 and beverage and entertainment firm Seagram slipped C$1.10 to C$56.
In banking issues, Royal Bank of Canada rose C$1.65 to C$74.75; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce climbed C$1 to C$38, and Bank of Nova Scotia edged up 5 cents to C$34.80. Overall, the financial services subindex rose 1.5%.
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