Bargain hunters lift TSX

Bay Street stocks continued to hover in the positive zone in mid-morning deals Monday as investors lapped up stocks on bargain hunting. During noon hour, the S&P/TSX Composite Index had added 32.37 points to 11,375.80 The main index fell for the previous three days, erasing nearly 4%. However, Gold and energy stocks were under the buyers' radar this morning as prices of oil and gold edged up. Financial stocks too rebounded from their early morning lows. The Gold Index added strength as Goldcorp. Inc. gained 0.49% after Toronto Dominion Bank hiked its rating on the stock to "buy" from "hold". Rand Gold rose 0.84%. Guyana Goldfields moved up 1.06% after announcing that it has closed its short form prospectus offering through which it has issued 10 million common shares at $6.95 per share to raise $69.5 million. Similarly, gold explorer Barkerville added 1.00% after it said it raised $13.05 million via private equity issue. Among energy plays, Baytex Energy rose 1.45% and Suncor Energy gathered 1.19%. Petroleum explorer Serica Energy moved up 0.82% after it said it sold certain of its interests in South East Asia to KrisEnergy Ltd, for $105.4 million. Meanwhile, minerals and natural gas explorer Caspian Energy slipped over 14%. The company announced the appointment of Michael Nobbs to its board of directors. Bank of Montreal edged up 0.33% even after its long term ratings were cut one grade at Moody's Investors Service, citing greater earnings volatility at the bank's wholesale investment bank. Bank of Nova Scotia moved up 0.58% after Macquarie group hiked its rating on the stock to "neutral" from "underperform". Research In Motion added 1.03%. Motorola Inc. said that it had filed a complaint against RIM with the U.S. International Trade Commission for infringement of patents. Insurance solutions service provider Kingsway Financial Services surged 16.45% after Westaim Corp agreed to buy Jevco Insurance from Kingsway for $263 million. Pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor Dragon Pharmaceutical rallied 15.87% to $0.730. The company said on Friday that Yanlin Han, Chairman and CEO of the company, has made a non-binding proposal to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Dragon Pharma for a price of $0.80 per share. With no major economic data on tap today, traders will look the movements in commodities prices to get clues. The Canadian dollar skidded 0.05 cents to 94.47 cents U.S. ON BAYSTREET The 14 TSX subgroups were evenly divided between gainers and losers. Information technology was the champion of the morning, tacking on 1.5%, followed by global base metals, ahead 1.1%, and energy stocks, 0.8% stronger. The losing groups were weighed by gold, off 0.9%, materials, down 0.7% and metals and mining stocks, trailing 0.4%. The TSX Venture Exchange faded 2.36 points to 1,547.31, while the Nasdaq Canada index inched up 2.95 points to 681.79. ON WALLSTREET In New York, weaker-than-expected housing market report cut into gains Monday morning, after a strong start to the session in the aftermath of last week's big selloff. The Dow Jones Industrials remained ahead 51.85 points by midday to 10,224.83. The S&P 500 was 7.34 points better to 1.099.10, and the Nasdaq regained 5.52 points to 2,210.81. Stocks plunged last week after the White House proposed new limits on banks and talk swirled that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's term may not be renewed. But those worries were tempered Monday morning at the start of a busy week for economic and earnings news. This week brings the Federal Reserve policy-setting meeting, the first reading on fourth-quarter GDP growth, the president's State of the Union address and profit reports from a slew of major companies. Apple reports after the close Monday. The Dow's weekly loss of 4.1% was the average's worst since the week ended March 6, 2009, when it closed at a 12-year low and the market hit bottom. Since then, the Dow has risen 57% as of Friday's close. Sales of existing homes fell to a 5.45-million-unit annual rate in December from a rate of 6.54 million units in November, according to a National Association of Realtors report released in the morning. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would fall to a 5.9-million-unit rate. Amid ongoing questions about whether Bernanke's term will be renewed, the central bank is meeting to discuss interest rate policy. Bankers meet Tuesday and Wednesday and are widely expected to opt to keep interest rates steady at historic lows near zero. Although the bank isn't likely to say much, investors will still scour the statement for hints about when the Fed plans to start raising interest rates or withdrawing some of the trillions in stimulus dollars it has put into the system. Sustained low interest rates and the increase of money in the system are seen as among the main reasons why the economy didn't crater and the stock market was able to bounce back last year. Treasury prices slid, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.62% from Friday's 3.59%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. The price of a barrel of oil climbed 11 cents to $74.65 U.S. Gold prices regained five dollars to $1,095 U.S.