Commodities lift Canadian stocks

Market News: After the Bell


Commodities lift Canadian stocks

RTGAM




If the commodity-heavy Canadian stock market loves higher oil and gold prices, it got big doses of both on Friday which helped drive the benchmark Canadian index up even as U.S. stocks fell.


Crude oil futures traded at $91.74 (U.S.) a barrel in New York, up $3.63 or 4.1 per cent, a substantial reversal from declines earlier in the week when observers fretted over rising U.S. inventories and concerns about lower consumption in the face of a slowing U.S. economy. As well, the price of gold shot up $11.59 an ounce in New York to $922.10 in another sudden reversal that brings bullion close to its record close of $929.40, according to Bloomberg.


The Canadian index closed at 12,989.34 on Friday, up 63.97 points or 0.5 per cent, driven higher by Barrick Gold Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Suncor Energy Ltd. The index was also given a lift by a sharp rally in Research In Motion Ltd. Its shares rose 4.6 per cent to $89.73 on speculation that the technology company may include a touch screen when it introduces its next line of BlackBerry wireless communications devices.


Meanwhile, major U.S. indexes ended the day down on more concerns about the health of the U.S. economy, despite a rally among blue-chip technology stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,182.13 down 64.87 points or 0.5 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1331.29, down 5.62 points or 0.4 per cent.


The S&P/TSX composite index now has the dubious distinction of being the world's best-performing major index in 2008, even though it is under water. So far this year, it is down 6.1 per cent - which would normally look bad if it were not for the 8.2 per cent loss at the Dow Jones industrial average, the 10.4 per cent loss at the U.K.'s FTSE 100, the 15 per cent loss at Japan's Nikkei 225 and the 16.1 per cent loss at Germany's DAX index.




Copyright 2001 The Globe and Mail