Nine-week rally continues

Nine-week rally continues

RTGAM

The Toronto stock market's nine-week-old rally continued Friday, with its main index closing at its highest level since early October, as optimism was fuelled by better-than-expected job numbers, rising oil and gas prices and renewed confidence in the U.S. banking sector.
The S&P/TSX composite index moved up 270.94 points to 10,237.99, lifting the main index up about 37 per cent from the start of the rally in early March.
Statistics Canada said the economy added 35,900 jobs in April, against market expectations of a 50,000 decline. In the United States, layoffs slowed in April to a six-month low of 539,000.
The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 164.80 points to 8,574.65, while the broader S&P 500 index rose 21.84 to 929.23.
Investors expressed relief at the results of the U.S. government's stress tests on the 19 largest U.S. banks, released after markets closed Thursday.
"Getting past the stress tests was a milestone," said Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investments for PNC Wealth Management.
The Canadian Press

Copyright 2001 The Globe and Mail

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