IN THE NEWS / Toronto Stocks Finish Shortened Session Firmer
Toronto's stock market dribbled to an early finish on Thursday, ending a bit higher in thin trading and extending some Christmas cheer ahead of the four-day holiday weekend.
The benchmark 300 Composite Index on the Toronto Stock Exchange rose 18.19 points or 0.28 percent to 6465.38 points, adding to Wednesday's gains.
The index managed to eke out a bigger increase than New York, which settled back after a bigger rise earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 15.96 points or nearly 0.2 percent to 9217.99 points.
Dealings were thin in Toronto as some market players nipped out early ahead of the 1300 EST/1800 GMT close.
"Choppy. Not much volume, which is not to be a big surprise given that it's a short day," said Rick Hutcheon, chief investment officer at CentrePost Mutual Funds. "It's kind of a nothing day."
Hutcheon added that portfolio managers were finished tweaking their funds to reflect the kind of holdings they wanted to carry into the New Year.
"I suspect between Christmas and New Year's Eve we're going to have pretty quiet markets," he said.
But Hutcheon added that next week New York investors, who have been enjoying a so-called Santa Claus rally this week, might force the Dow upward to meet or beat its record high of 9380.20 points, set on November 23.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they wished a little push on this thing and jammed it up to an all-time high," Hutcheon said.
Toronto trading on Thursday was unusually slow at 51 million shares valued at C$481 million.
Advancing stocks beat out declines 462 to 409 while 309 ended unchanged.
Ten of Toronto's 14 subindexes edged upward, led by gold and precious minerals, up 1.26 percent, base metals and forestry products. Some of the commodities saw a slight rebound after weakness earlier this week.
The losers included industrial products, oils, transportation and consumer products.
Most of the top actives were smaller stocks including Internet auctioneer Bid.Com International Inc. , which soared C$0.13 to C$3.75 on nearly two million shares traded.
Noranda Inc. dropped C$4.40 to C$15.45.
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