Business
Positive day for stocks
Positive day for stocks
About this update from Precision Drilling Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\nPositive day for stocks\n\nCanada manufacturing numbers in\n Dec. 16, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) -- After opening higher on Wednesday, Bay Street stocks continued to move higher into positive territory helped by gains seen across the board.\n\nThe S&P/TSX Composite index was solidly ahead by noon hour, tacking on 143.57 points, or 1.2% to 11,684.51. \n\nGold stocks attracted investor attention, after the price of the precious metal jumped in the commodities market.\n\nEncouraging housing starts figures from the US also lifted investor sentiment\n\nGold and Material indexes were the major gainers. ALMOS Gold jumped 5.97%, SEMAFO. Inc. rallied 4.34%, followed by Gold Corp., which added 3.24%.\n\nBank of Nova Scotia gained 0.98%, on news that the bank is among the bidders for a stake Siam City Bank PCL, Thailand's seventh-biggest bank. Potash Corp. gained 1.06%, after the company announced that it had entered into a $2.5-billion revolving term credit facility.\n\nCrescent Point Energy was up 0.43%, after it announced that it entered into an agreement with Penn West Energy Trust to acquire certain assets in southwest Saskatchewan. Penn West soared 2.18%.\n\nOn the other hand, Precision Drilling was down 0.54% after announcing it had set aside $75 million for capital expenditure for decommissioning a number of its rigs. \n\nOn the economic front, Canadian manufacturing sales rose more than expected in November, led by higher sales of petroleum and aerospace products.\n\nStatistics Canada said manufacturing sales advanced 2.0% in October to $42.5 billion, smashing the forecasts of economists, who were predicting a sales increase of 0.5% over the previous month.\n\nThe Canadian dollar gained 0.23 cents to 94.48 cents U.S. \n\nON BAYSTREET \n\nAll but one of the 14 TSX subgroups gained ground. Information technology and metals and mining issues vied for top spot, surging 2.4% each, while gold gained 2.1%. \n\nThe lone laggard was health-care, whose stocks slid 0.5%. \n\nThe TSX Venture Exchange shot upward 16.59 points to 1,438.64, while the Nasdaq Canada index added 13.87 points to 711.54\n\nON WALLSTREET\nIn New York, stocks jumped Wednesday as investors awaited the latest pronouncement on the economy from the Federal Reserve.\n\nThe Dow Jones Industrials picked up 35.37 points by midday to 10,487.37, while the S&P 500 grew 6.98 points to ...