TSX courts 12K

Mar. 2, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) --

Canadian stocks rose to their multi-month high in mid-morning deals Tuesday following a recent string of encouraging economic data. By noon, the S&P/TSX composite index had climbed 86.91 points to 11,814.97. Investors accumulated stocks across a variety of sectors, with financial and gold stocks turning in particularly strong performances. The Financials Index gained, as Bank of Montreal gained 3.32% after it said its first quarter income rose to $1.12 per share from $0.39 per share from the year ago quarter, beating analysts' estimates for a profit of $1.03 per share. Canadian Western Bank rose 1.81%. Investment banker GMP Capital gathered 3.17% after it swung to profit in its fourth quarter, reporting net income of $0.25 per share compared with a net loss of $0.27 per share in the prior year period. Gold stocks regained their shine, moving higher along with the base metal price. Lihir Gold was up 3.11%. Barrick Gold added 1.30%. Gold miner Gleichen Resources moved up 1.05% even after reporting net loss of $0.04 per share for the year ended October 31, 2009, wider than a loss of $0.01 per share in the prior year. Among energy plays, Encana Corp moved up 0.71% and Imperial Oil edged up 0.81%. Meanwhile, PetroBakken slipped 1.61% after it said it will acquire a private oil and gas producer for $251 million Petroleum and natural gas company Penn West Energy Trust eased 0.32%. The company said it has priced a proposed offering of senior unsecured notes to be issued by Penn West Petroleum Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary and administrator of the Trust, on a private placement basis in the U.S. and Canada with an aggregate principal amount of about $300 million. Potash Corp. gained 1.33% and Agrium Inc. was up 0.77%. Today, CF Industries Holdings renewed its offer to about $4.73 billion to acquire rival Terra Industries. Software solutions provider CryptoLogic plummeted 13.91% after reporting fourth-quarter net loss of $1.97 per share, compared to net loss of $2.05 per share last year. In economic news, the Bank of Canada retained its key overnight interest rate at 0.25% Tuesday morning, in line with economists' expectations. The bank also projected it would hold current policy rate until the end of the second quarter of 2010, barring inflationary pressures. Meanwhile, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the national housing agency, said Tuesday that housing starts will continue to improve in the coming years. It foresees 152,000 to 189,300 units of housing starts in 2010 and expects it to improve in the range of 156,400 to 205,600 units in 2011. The Canadian dollar gained 0.83 cents to 96.77 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET All but three of the 14 TSX subgroups were positive by midday. Gold shone brightest, gaining 1.7%, followed by materials, up 1.6% and metals and mining stocks, soaring 1.3%. The three laggards were health-care, down 0.6%, consumer staples, off 0.3% and real-estate, sagging 0.2%. The TSX Venture Exchange was ahead 8.37 points to 1,545.98, while the Nasdaq Canada index gained 5.40 points to 760.32. ON WALLSTREET In New York, stocks rose Tuesday morning ahead of reports on auto sales and as investors became hopeful that a solution to Greece's debt crisis would be reached. The Dow Jones industrial average had moved higher 39.98 points by lunchtime to 10,443.77. The S&P 500 index picked up 6.28 points to 1,121.99, and the Nasdaq composite added 14.49 points to 2,288.05. Gains were pared, however, after Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig called for a hike in interest rates even with high levels of unemployment. Investors will be closely watching February sales reports from the auto industry to see if U.S. automakers were dragged down by Toyota's massive recalls. Sales tracker Edmunds.com expects Toyota's sales to drop 10% over the same period a year ago and for its shares of the U.S. market to fall to a five-year low. Other automakers, including General Motors, Ford and Hyundai, are expected to post sales gains from a year ago. General Motors said Tuesday that it recalled 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac models in North America for power steering failures tied to 14 crashes and one injury. Internationally, expectations that a rescue package for Greece is near boosted optimism about European stability. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co., said U.S. investors were "breathing a sigh of relief" Tuesday over signs that Greek debt issues might eventually be resolved."I think the most important thing is the general sentiment in the market that we're going to get the sovereign debt issues in Greece figured out," said Hogan. Among stocks on the move, Terra Industries Inc. jumped 12% after CF Industries Holdings Inc. bid for the fertilizer producer. Qualcomm Inc. rose 4.5% in early trading after boosting its dividend and announcing a new share buyback plan. Treasury prices were mixed, keeping the yield on the 10-year note at 3.62%. The price of a barrel of oil added $1.22 to $79.95 U.S. Gold prices shot up $16 to $1,134 U.S.