Tag Archives: toronto stock exchange

TSX jumps 1.3 pct as Fed holds steady, gold miners surge

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reuters.com

September 21, 2016 

* TSX ends up 188.84 points, or 1.30 percent, at 14,710.82

* All of the TSX’s 10 main groups move higher

By Alastair Sharp

TORONTO, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index notched its highest close in almost two weeks on Wednesday as gold miners surged after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, which also boosted shares of dividend-paying utility companies.

Adding to the upward momentum, energy companies gained as oil prices rose sharply after a third surprise weekly drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 188.84 points, or 1.30 percent, at 14,710.82, its highest finish since Sept. 8. All of the index’s 10 main groups gained.

The Fed strongly signaled it could still tighten monetary policy by the end of this year, while three dissenters said they favored raising rates this week.

“The market will see this as a continuation of the standard operating procedure thus far, namely that rates are lower for longer, that this is a very cautious Fed,” said John Stephenson, president at Stephenson & Company Capital Management.

“I think the reality is this is a Fed that is more market-dependant than it is data-dependant,” he added.

The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, jumped 4.6 percent, as the Fed news helped extend gold’s gains after the Bank of Japan earlier adopted a target for long-term interest rates. Barrick Gold Corp surged 7.9 percent higher to C$24.51 and Goldcorp Inc advanced 6.2 percent to C$22.06.

The energy group rose 1.8 percent, with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd up 1.7 percent at C$39.33 and Suncor Energy Inc adding 1 percent to C$34.40.

Industrials rose 1.2 percent, including gains for railroad stocks, while financials advanced 0.6 percent.

Utilities gained 1 percent as the Fed hold pushed investors back towards stocks that offer yield.

“There are no bargains out there. The yield plays in general have been picked over, so it’s very hard to find something that’s attractive for a yield perspective that’s also attractive from a valuation perspective,” Stephenson said.

BlackBerry Ltd shares rose 2.2 percent to C$10.20. The company has agreed to offer anti-hacking software from a startup that last year discovered a major Android bug, it said, as the once-dominant smartphone company seeks to leverage ties to corporate and government clients to boost its software revenue.

The value of Canadian wholesale trade rose in July for the fourth consecutive month, posting a 0.3 percent gain on strength in the motor vehicle and parts subsector, Statistics Canada said.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Chris Reese and Meredith Mazzilli)

Source: CANADA STOCKS-TSX jumps 1.3 pct as Fed holds steady, gold miners surge | Kitco News

TSX rises to 1-week high as banks gain, energy weighs 

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reuters.com

Tuesday September 20, 2016

* TSX ends up 25.75 points, or 0.18 percent, at 14,521.98

* Seven of the TSX’s 10 main groups move higher

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index rose to a one-week high on Tuesday as shares of banks and other financial sector companies climbed, while the energy sector weighed as oil prices hit six-week lows intraday.

The financials group, which accounts for 35 percent of the index’s weight, gained 0.6 percent as investors braced for the outcomes of Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan policy meetings on Wednesday.

Royal Bank of Canada advanced 0.4 percent to C$81.06 and Bank of Nova Scotia added 0.6 percent to C$70.43.

Today’s rally shows that investors still have faith in major central banks to keep interest rates low, said Ian Scott, a portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.

The interest-rate-sensitive telecommunications sector rose 0.5 percent, while both the consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors gained more than 0.8 percent and technology stocks advanced 1.3 percent.

“There has just been a shift toward some info-tech (information technology stocks) lately in general because they do have some good growth,” Scott said.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed up 25.75 points, or 0.18 percent, at 14,521.98. It touched its highest since Sept. 12 at 14,573.25.

Seven of the index’s 10 main groups ended higher.

The energy group fell 1 percent as U.S. oil prices fell to the lowest in six weeks before settling modestly higher. One of the most influential weights on the index was Encana Corp , which fell 7.6 percent to C$12.04 after the natural gas producer said late on Monday it will issue 107 million new shares to raise just more than $1 billion. Cenovus Energy Inc declined 1.3 percent to C$17.52.

The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, edged 0.1 percent higher.

Barrick Gold’s Veladero gold mine in Argentine, closed by the government last week after a solution containing cyanide leaked, could resume operations in the next two weeks, the company’s president said on Monday. Its shares were unchanged at C$22.71.

Agrium Inc advanced 0.8 percent to C$119.81. The company’s CEO said that tough farm conditions make it the right time for a merger with Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc

Canadian interest rates will stay low for longer as the economy faces strong headwinds and business investment is weaker than expected, but government spending on infrastructure will help growth, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Nick Zieminski and James Dalgleish)

Source: CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises to 1-week high as banks gain, energy weighs | Kitco News

China turmoil pushes global stocks towards worst start to a year in at least 28 years

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Global stocks headed for their worst start to a year in at least 28 years, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 350 points, as turmoil emanating from China spread around the world and billionaire George Soros warned that a larger crisis may be brewing.

The Toronto Stock Exchange lost nearly 2 per cent of its value Thursday morning amid fresh upheaval around the world following another early shutdown of two major Chinese stock markets.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 222.36 points at 12,504.44 points at 10:30 a.m. after an hour of trading.

The Canadian dollar remained near 12 ½-year lows at 71.13 cents (U.S.) but rose 0.11 cent from Wednesday’s close.

At mid-afternoon, the S&P/TSX composite index had shed 256.14 points at 12,470.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 347.90 points at 16,558.61. The Nasdaq composite index lost 135.56 points at 4,700.20.

The Canadian dollar was trading at 70.98 cents US, down four-100ths from Wednesday’s close.

The world’s financial markets are being tossed by developments in China, where the central bank made a surprise move to adjust its currency rate and two major stock exchanges were closed early Thursday because of a sudden drop in stock prices.

“It is shaping up to be another (wildly) negative day in global equity markets,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist with BMO Financial Group, in a note to clients.

“Panic is at play here, and having the (People’s Bank of China) trying to stem the losses by imposing all sorts of rules and regulations does not help over the longer term.”

In New York, the Dow Jones was initially down more than 300 points but recovered somewhat to 16,711.09, down 195.42 points, or 1.2 peer cent. The S&P 500 index was down 23.42 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 1,966.84 and the Nasdaq fell by 71.36 points or 1.6 per cent at 4,372.62.

On the commodity markets, February contracts for crude oil reduced their earlier losses to 63 cents, trading at $33.34 per barrel, and gold futures rose $14.20 to $1,106.10 an ounce.

Earlier Thursday, trading on China’s Shanghai and Shenzen stock markets were pre-emptively halted for a second time this week after new “circuit breakers” were triggered when a benchmark stock index fell seven per cent.

The circuit breakers also kicked in Monday, the first day of trading since they were introduced on Jan. 1. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said after Thursday’s shutdown that the circuit breaker rule had been suspended.

Chinese markets have lurched up and down as regulators gradually withdraw emergency measures imposed after the main stock index plunged in June following an explosive rise.

A similar price plunge Monday triggered a sell-off on Wall Street and other global markets.

On Thursday, trading was suspended after a market index, the CSI 300, nosedived 7 per cent a half-hour after markets opened, triggering a “circuit breaker” that took effect Jan. 1.

Financial analysts have warned Chinese markets are likely to see extreme volatility for a few more months as they seek a stable level following last year’s rout.

The “circuit breaker” requires a 15-minute pause in trading if the CSI 300 falls 5 per cent within 30 minutes. But Thursday’s decline was so fast that before that could take effect, it hit the 7 per cent limit that ends trading for the day.

“China has a major adjustment problem,” influential investor Soros said Thursday at an economic forum in Colombo, Sri Lanka. “I would say it amounts to a crisis.

“When I look at the financial markets there is a serious challenge which reminds me of the crisis we had in 2008.”

Contagion from China helped wipe $2.5 trillion off the value of global equities in the first six days of this year as the nation’s tolerance for a weaker currency is viewed as evidence that policy-makers are struggling to revive an economy that’s the world’s biggest user of energy, metals and grains. The World Bank cut its global growth forecasts for this year and next as China’s slowdown prolongs a commodity slump and contractions endure in Brazil and Russia. The U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says a “dangerous cocktail” of global threats faces the British economy this year.

European stocks fell for the third time in four days, mirroring declines that shook global equities in August, as they extended the worst start to a year since 2000 amid a China-fueled selloff in mining and energy shares.

European shares have tumbled 6.4 per cent in the first four days of the year as companies with the most sales in the world’s second-biggest economy bear the brunt of the decline. Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc tumbled 6 per cent or more today, pushing a gauge of miners to its lowest level since 2009. Carmakers fell to a three-month low.

Equities around the world are in retreat as an eighth day of cuts in the yuan’s reference rate exacerbated concern that growth in China is slowing more than previously forecast. The declines are a setback for European equity bulls who had speculated that central-bank stimulus and a slowly improving economy would insulate the region from stress in Asia and North America.

“The Chinese economic outlook is getting bleaker,” said Daniel Weston, chief investment officer of Aimed Capital in Munich. “Chinese demand for European exports is weakening and the price of European goods and services is getting costlier for the Chinese. In August, the Chinese said it would be a ‘one off’ devaluation, but now the market knows it is much more than that.”

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid as much as 3.6 per cent, the most since August, before trading 3.3 per cent lower at 12:01 p.m. in London. All but seven stocks fell. Germany’s DAX Index lost 3.5 per cent to 9,858.15, trading below 10,000 for the first time since October.

The Stoxx 600 is on track for its worst week since August, when China’s yuan devaluation sparked a selloff that saw Europe’s benchmark plunge as much as 18 per cent from its record. The VStoxx Index measuring volatility expectations in euro-area shares jumped 17 per cent, heading for its biggest weekly advance since April.

The DAX, whose exporters have a greater exposure to China, has tumbled 8.3 per cent this week, heading for its worst loss since August 2011. It’s down 14 percent since a November high. The benchmark entered a bear market at the height of the summer rout, before rebounding as much as 21 percent.

The rout spread to the Middle East. Saudi Arabian stocks led a decline in Middle Eastern markets as the slump in oil prices deepened amid a global equity rout spurred by the financial turmoil in China.

The Tadawul All Share Index slid as much as 5 per cent before paring its decline to 4.8 per cent at 2:58 p.m. in Riyadh. The DFM General Index retreated 3.4 percent, the most in almost two months, to the lowest level since Dec. 15. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, a gauge that tracks the 200 largest stocks in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, declined for a fifth day to the lowest since January 2013.

China is one of the biggest trading partners of Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and the United Arab Emirates, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. dropped 4.2 per cent. The company, one of the world’s largest chemicals manufacturers, was trading at the lowest level since September 2009. Three technical indicators were this week suggesting the share may be ready to rebound. The yield on Sabic’s 2.625 percent bonds due October 2018 rose six basis points to highest level since February 2014.

Saudi Cable Company, a Jeddah-based cable and reel manufacturer, was set for the lowest close since March 2003. The company said on Wednesday it expects a 3 percent impact on output costs from Saudi Arabia’s subsidy cuts.

Stocks in the region have been under further strain as relations between Shiite-majority Iran and Arab nations worsened. The Saudis on Saturday executed 47 people accused of terrorism-related activities, including a Shiite cleric, which prompted protesters to attack the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran. In turn, Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies cut diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic.

“With oil going the way it is and China reacting the way it is reacting and the tension between Iran and Saudi, it was very much expected, long overdue,” Ahmed Shehada, executive director for advisory and institutions at NBAD Securities LLC, said by phone from Dubai. “The market is looking quite bearish.”

The yield on Dubai’s government bond due October 2020 rose eight basis points to the highest level since January 2015. Emaar Properties PJSC, the company with the biggest weighting on the emirate’s main stock index, was the largest contributor to the gauge’s retreat. The developer sank 5.4 percent, the most since Aug. 23.

Qatar’s QE Index slid 3 percent and Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index lost 3.2 percent, the most since August. Kuwaiti stocks decreased 1.6 percent and Bahraini equities lost 0.7 percent. Oman’s MSM 30 Index dropped 0.5 percent.

Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul 100 Index fell, heading for the lowest level in more than three weeks. The lira weakened for a fifth day against the dollar and was among the worst-performing emerging market currencies on Thursday.

Israel’s TA-25 Index dropped 1.8 per cent. The declines were led by Opko Health Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., tracking the losses of their U.S.-traded shares.

—with files from Bloomberg News

Source: China turmoil pushes global stocks towards worst start to a year in at least 28 years | Toronto Star