Business
TSX holds onto gains
TSX holds onto gains
About this update from Westaim Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\nTSX holds onto gains\n\nGold shines brightest in T.O.\n Mar. 16, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) -- Resource stocks and financials continued to lead Toronto's main index higher Tuesday afternoon. The price of gold and oil climbed significantly as the greenback moved lower, ahead of a key interest rate decision from the US Federal Reserve. \n\nThe S&P/TSX composite index advanced 80.60 points on the day to 12,089.40. \n\nThe Gold Index gained, as Barrick Gold Corp. rose 1.9% to $40.64, Goldcorp Inc. added 1.6% to $40.62 and Yamana Gold Inc. rose 1.7% to $10.35.\n\nThe Financials Index gained ground, too, with TD Bank up 2.3% to $75.02 and BMO up 1.1% to $61.04. Power Corporation of Canada was up, but only 0.3% to $30.38.\n\nThe Westaim Corporation surged 10.5% at 74 cents after the investmant company announced that independent proxy advisory firm RiskMetrics Group recommended its clients to vote in favour of approving a financing resolution related to the issuance of up to 550 million common shares of Westaim.\n\nAmong energy stocks, Crew Energy Inc. rose 3.1% to $17.07 and Petrobakken Energy Ltd. added 0.7% to $27.08.\n\nThe Information Technology Index faded, as Open Text Corp. lost 1.3% to $49.78 and Research In Motion Ltd. shed 1.3% to $76.19. \n\nBioExx Specialty Proteins Ltd, which announced plans to raise approximately $15.0 million by offering 8.15 million common shares on a bought deal basis at a price of $1.85 per share, gave in 3.1% at $1.91.\n\nIn economic news, Statistics Canada said manufacturing sales in the country rose for the fifth month by 2.4% to $44.6 billion in January, rising for the fifth straight month. Primary metal manufacturers led the gains, adding 8.5% from December. \n\nIn another report, labour productivity in Canadian businesses was up 1.4% in the fourth quarter, increasing for the first time since the third quarter of 2008. Economists were expecting the productivity to grow by 0.7% after dropping 0.2% in December.\n\nThe Canadian dollar was up 0.47 cents to 98.61 cents U.S. \n\nON BAYSTREET \n\nOf the 14 TSX subgroups, gold posted the strongest gains of the 11 groups in the green, at 2.1%. Materials were next, gaining 1.5%, while metals and mining groups moved up 1.3%. \n\nThe three laggards were information technology, off 0.5%, telecoms, down 0.2%, and consumer discretionaries, sliding a mere 0.03%. \n\n...