Stocks in Canada’s biggest market marched ahead Monday morning, boosted by energy and mining firms at the start of a holiday-shortened week, while telecom firm Telus slid following a rating downgrade.
The TSX Composite gained 75.02 points to reach into noon hour at 22,059.10. Markets will be closed for Good Friday.
The Canadian dollar forged ahead 0.15 cents to 73.61 cents U.S.
Among company news, Scotiabank downgraded telecom firm Telus Corp to "sector perform" from "sector outperform.” TELUS shares began Monday down 24 cents, or 1.1%, to $21.52.
Manulife Financial said that it has agreed to reinsure $5.8 billion of reserves of Canadian Universal Life block, sending shares of the insurer 36 cents, or 1.1% higher to $33.02.
Sun Life Financial crept 0.1% after the insurer named Timothy Deacon as its chief financial officer, effective April 8. Sun Life shares climbed 12 cents to $73.92.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 1.24 points to 551.07.
Seven of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher midday, as energy heightened 1.6%, gold was better by 1.4%, and materials took on 0.9%.
The five laggards were weighed most by consumer discretionary stocks, down 0.4%, while health-care and industrials each lurched 0.3% lower.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks were slightly lower Monday to start a shortened trading week as the rally that brought Wall Street to record levels took a breather.
The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 111.5 points to 39,364.40.
The S&P 500 index staggered 7.2 points to 5,226.98.
The NASDAQ gave back 9.72 points to 16,419.10.
Shares of Intel led the market lower, with the semiconductor firm sliding 3% after The Financial Times reported that new China guidelines would block Intel chips in government servers and computers. United Airlines stock fell 6% after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would be heightening scrutiny of the airline after a series of safety incidents.
The market is on track for its fifth consecutive month of gains, with the major U.S. stock benchmarks crossing new all-time closing high levels last week. The S&P 500 added roughly 2.3% last week, while the Dow gained just under 2% for its best week since December, nearing the 40,000 level. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, jumped about 2.9% during the period.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell, raising yields to 4.25% from Friday’s 4.21%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices pumped $1.39 higher to $82.02 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices soared $16.80 to $2,176.80.
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