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Oil leads Toronto surge
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January 4, 1999: 5:22 p.m. ET
Cold snap sparks rebound in crude prices, flowing into New Year rally
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Toronto stocks climbed more than 1 percent in moderate trading Monday, boosted by gains in the resource-based sectors.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's key 300 Composite Index rose 68.36 points, or 1.05 percent, to 6,554.30.
Volume was slightly under par at 63.3 million shares traded, with advancers outpacing decliners 520 to 436 and another 224 issues unchanged.
In New York, the closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up a scant 2.84 points at 9,184.27, retreating from early soaring gains.
Rick Hutcheon, president of CentrePost Mutual Funds in Toronto, attributed Toronto's New Year's rally to investors returning to work flush with cash and looking for a place to park it.
"People are starting out the new year with more cash than they would otherwise choose to have," he said.
However, Hutcheon was not surprised by the rally as Toronto historically sees big gains in the first few weeks in January.
"Typically, the first part of the year we always get a rally," he said. "People come back stuffed full of turkey and feeling good about it. Historically you get the follow-on from the Santa Claus rally."
Overall in Toronto, 13 of the TSE 300's 14 subindexes were higher, led by a strong performance among resource-based stocks. Only the pipelines ended the day with a loss, down 0.12 percent.
The oil and gas group closed up 2.46 percent and the metals and minerals group gained 1.9 percent. The paper and forest sector gave up most of its morning advance to end 0.58 percent higher.
Gainers among the oils included several big names that had been hit hard by tax-loss selling late last year, including Renaissance Energy Ltd., up 5.44 percent to C$18.40, and Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM), up 3.53 percent to C$27.90.
Traders attributed the oil buying to rising oil and gas prices amid cold and stormy winter weather in the Great Plains and eastern United States and Canada.
Nickel miner Inco Ltd. led the mining rally, firming 5.56 percent to C$17.10 as investors realigned their portfolios.
"Portfolio readjustments and realignments by some people with big cap stocks is the reason for this,'' said Terence Ortslan, a mining analyst at TSO & Associates of Montreal.
The gold and precious metals group also made headway late in the session, ending 0.24 percent firmer as investors picked up bargains.
Gold heavyweight Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) was one of the most heavily traded stocks, falling 0.17 percent to C$29.75. Competitor Placer Dome (PDG) gained 1.71 percent to C$17.85.
Resource providers also buoyed other Canadian markets. A 2.47-percent upswing in Montreal oil companies lifted that city's Portfolio index 1.82 percent, 60.69 points, to end at 3,393.95.
The resource-rich Vancouver Composite index also closed firmer, up 3.35 points, 0.85 percent, at 399.60.
-- from staff and wire reports
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