Gold's Gains Boost Shares
May 01, 2011
The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 Composite Index gained 28.39 to 5117.57, after rising 16.11 Friday. Advancers outpaced decliners 506 to 371. Volume totaled 71.1 million shares valued at 1.2 billion Canadian dollars, down slightly from Friday's total of 75.8 million shares valued at C$950.4 million. Toronto outperformed New York, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9.99 to 5699.44, with some investors sidelined before Tuesday's meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee to discuss interest rates. Bay Street investors here, confident that the FOMC meeting will leave interest rates unchanged, focused on the gold and forest products groups, which rose 2.12% and 1.45%, respectively. Among gold stocks, heavy-weight Barrick Gold increased 0.85 to 37.55, as the bullion price on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 1 U.S. dollar to US$387.30 an ounce. The increase befuddled at least some observers. ``Gold in particular sometimes rises and falls for no obvious reason, and today was one of those times,'' said Davina Laurent, senior vice president at Elliot & Page Ltd.. But reasons for interest in the forest products sector were more evident. In that group, pulp producers benefited the most, reflecting their relatively low stock prices, a belief that the underlying commodity price has bottomed, and a drawdown in pulp inventories, Mr. Laurent said. Avenor rose 0.95 to 22.80. Overall, 11 of the TSE's 14 stock groups rose. The relatively minor real-estate sector led declining groups, shedding 0.99%.
