Banking, Gold Shares Advance
March 31, 2011
The Toronto Stock Exchange's 300-share composite index slipped 1.94 to 5005 after rising 66.94 Thursday. For the week, the benchmark index shed about 36 points. Advancing issues exceeded decliners 470 to 335, while trading volume totaled 67.9 million shares traded, down from Thursday's 69.6 million shares. Trading value fell to 895.1 million Canadian dollars from C$1.14 billion a day earlier. Toronto outperformed the New York market, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 37.36 to 5426.82. Fredda Mantooth, senior trader at ScotiaMcLeod Inc., attributed Toronto's fairly strong performance to an improved earnings outlook for the banks and renewed expectations that the price of gold is on the rebound. By shaving 0.25 percentage point off overnight lending rates -- the rates financial institutions charge each other to borrow money -- the Bank of Canada is looking to spur on the economy. In turn, this could boost demand for bank loans and lead to improved earnings in the sector, Mr. Mantooth said. The banking sector rose 0.91% to lead all stock groups, with Toronto-Dominon Bank gaining 0.30 to 25.60. The gold sector followed with a 0.77% gain as Bre-X Minerals added 1.10 to 25 and Barrick Gold increased 0.35 to 36.95. Among other blue chips, Alcan Aluminium fell 0.10 to 40.75, BCE Inc. slipped 0.55 to 55, Canadian Pacific Ltd. lost 0.30 to 28.80, Imperial Oil added 0.30 to 57.10, Moore Corp. slid 0.25 to 26.75 and Northern Telecom dropped 0.90 to 71.10.
