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Mar. 31, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --
The Toronto stock market edged into the red Wednesday afternoon as signs of strong Canadian economic growth to start the year ran up against a negative private-sector employment report from the United States. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended the day down 6.48 points on the day to 12,037.73. The index closed 2.5% higher for the first quarter of 2010. TSX metals stocks were up on a flurry of activity in the sector. Inmet Mining Corp. has arranged a $500-million equity financing through Ellington Investments Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of a Singapore-based investment company with holdings in Asia and Latin America. Shares rose 6.3%, or $3.51, to $59.01. Meanwhile, Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. says it will spin off all its copper, gold and molybdenum properties in British Columbia to a new independent company called Miocene Metals Ltd. Its shares were up one cent to 26.5 cents. The May copper contract lost one cent to $3.55 U.S. a pound. The information technology sector backed off ahead of earnings from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion scheduled after the closing bell. It shares were down $1.01 to $75.25. In corporate news, Transat AT shares jumped 14.1% after chartered airline Skyservice announced it was shutting down. Transat as one of the company's competitors and is expected to pick up some of Skyservice's cancelled flights. Its shares rose $1.73 to $13.99. Mega Brands Inc. says an uptick in fourth-quarter sales allowed it to drastically trim losses to $22.1 million U.S. or 60 cents per share in the period, narrowing losses sharply from year-earlier levels of $323.3 million or $8.83 per share. Shares tumbled 1.5 cents to 48.5 cents. A subsidiary of CVTech Group Inc. has received a two-year contract from Hydro-Quebec, worth $21 million, to install poles and anchors for electrical distribution lines throughout the province. Shares rose seven cents to $1.34. Premium Brands Holdings Corporation is acquiring an 80% interest in Duso's Enterprises Ltd., a Vancouver-based maker of fresh pastas and sauces, from its founders in a $5.6-million cash, stock and debt transaction. Shares slipped 37 cents to $14.16. Clothing maker Gildan Activewear Inc. has bought a T-shirt factory Shahriyar Fabric Industries Ltd. near Dhaka, Bangladesh for $15 million U.S., and its shares slipped 23 cents to $26.72. Canadian National Railway Co. says it has sold a "key section of track" in Toronto, west of Union Station, to Ontario government-owned Metrolinx for $168 million. Shares were down 49 cents to $61.64. In economic news, Statistics Canada said the country's real gross domestic product advanced for a fifth straight month, rising 0.6% in January. It added that manufacturing increased 1.9% in January after a 1.2% advance in December. The Canadian dollar picked up 0.45 cents to 98.52 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET Of the 14 TSX subgroups, eight ended the day lower. Real-estate stocks suffered the worst, off 1.1%, while information technology stocks lost 0.9%, consumer discretionary were down 0.6%. Of the half-dozen gainers, energy stocks did best, surging 0.6%, followed by gold, up 0.5%, while materials were ahead 0.4%. The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 6.17 points to 1,576.55, for a gain on the quarter of 3.6%. The Nasdaq Canada index gave back 6.57 points to 799.84. ON WALLSTREET Stocks ended lower Wednesday, but higher for the quarter after a strong showing in March, as downbeat jobs and manufacturing reports cooled a recent runup. The Dow Jones industrial average settled back 50.79 points to 10,856.63. The S&P 500 slid 3.84 points to 1,169.43 -- still posting a gain of 4.9% for the quarter. The Nasdaq stumbled 12.73 points to end the month at 2,397.96, but 5.7% higher than it ended 2009. For the first quarter, the Dow gained 4.1% after a 5.2% advance in March. Wednesday's declines were broad based, with 25 of the blue-chip Dow's 30 components ending lower. Stocks ended slightly higher Tuesday, pushing the Dow to a fresh 18-month high as investors digested mixed reports showing a rise in consumer confidence and continued weakness in the housing market. Economically speaking, ADP released its monthly report on employment before the opening bell, showing that private-sector employers cut 23,000 jobs in March. This was in sharp contrast to expectations of a 40,000-job increase, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. This is after cutting a revised 24,000 in February. ADP has not reported an increase in monthly payroll numbers since January 2008, when 34,000 private-sector jobs were added. The Chicago PMI, a regional reading on manufacturing, was released shortly after the market opened and pushed equities further down. The index slipped to 58.8 in March from 62.6 the previous month. Economists predicted a smaller drop, to 61. Also, after the market opened, the Census Bureau reported factory orders for manufactured goods rose 0.6% in February, slightly higher than analysts' expectations but significantly less than January's 2.5% increase. The price of the benchmark 10-year note jumped, lowering the yield to 3.83% from Tuesday's 3.87%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil gained 99 cents to $83.36 U.S. Gold prices hiked nine dollars to $1,114 U.S.