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Toronto Stocks Hold Recent Gains
Canadian stocks are little changed in early trading on Friday, as they look to add it an eight-day rally. Traders considered improved retail sales data released before the open.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 14.55 or 0.16% to move at 8,705.04. The index finished Thursday at its highest level in more than a month.
Mining stocks are up 2% to lead the gainers. Teck Cominco has rallied 6.25% and Inmet is up 1%.
Thompson Creek Metals is up 3%. The company reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of US$24.6 mln or US$0.20 per share, compared to net income of US$28.8 mln or US$0.22 per share in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Denison Mines has dropped 6.7% after the stock was downgraded to Underperform from Sector Perform by RBC Capital Markets.
In other corporate news, Pantera Drilling Income Trust reported its fourth-quarter net earnings were C$2.053 mln or C$0.24 per unit, higher than prior year's C$682 thousand or C$0.11 per unit.
Kinross will pay $45.6-mln or $3 a share for stakes in a diamond mine and Toronto-based Harry Winston. The Gold Index is down 0.4%.
Barrick Gold is flat amid reports in Australian online newspaper WAToday that Newmont Mining Corp. is open to a possible merger with Barrick.
Fortis is up 3.7% after the company was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform by RBC.
Tundra Semiconductor has soared 39% after the company said it has agreed to sell itself to Gennum Corp. in a cash and stock deal worth C$86 mln. Gennum shares are up 4.5%.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that retail sales rose 1.9% in January to $33.7 billion after declining 5.2% in December, which was the largest monthly decline in more than 15 years. Sales rose in five of the eight retail sectors, led by a 3.8% increase in the automotive sector. In volume terms, retail sales rose 1.8%.
Separate data from Stats Canada showed the number of new motor vehicles sold in Canada rose 5.5% to 119,231 units in January. |
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Footsie tracks sideways as financials cancel each other out
Market Movers
FTSE 100 3,809.08 -0.21%
techMARK 1,106.82 -0.51%
FTSE 250 6,220.32 -0.66%
Footsie is tracking sideways today as a weak bank sector offsets more gains for the life insurers. HSBC and Barclays are among the worst performers after the former went ex-rights, but elsewhere in the banking sector, Lloyds is going well.
Life groups continue to tick up led by Legal & General and Prudential. The Pru is being helped by stories that is new chief executive's first job could be to break the life group up. There have already been stories that the UK arm has been checked out by Resolution.
Elsewhere, miner Kazakhmys has assumed control of the Ekibastuz GRES-1 power plant and Maikuben Coal Mine in the Pavlodar province of Kazakhstan ahead of schedule. Miners are generally doing well, with Kazakhmys’s Kazakh compatriot ENRC and Anglo American among the best performers.
Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline has reduced it holding in laboratory services group Quest to 16.5% with the sale of 5.75m shares to raise about $256m.
Workplaces provider Regus is the big mover. It posted record results and hiked dividends by 80% but warned the market has become tougher. Total dividends for the 12-month period increased to 1.8p per share from 1p in 2007 as the group saw profits surge 25% to £149.2m.
Hovis and Birds Custard owner Premier Foods received 66.05% acceptances for the open offer part of its £379m fund raising. The rump of the open offer shares, some 33.95%, will go to the investors with whom they had been conditionally placed.
Aberdeen based oil and gas firm Venture Production hailed ‘another excellent drilling result’ as it published test drilling results from its Carna gas property. Well log data indicates a gas column in excess of 1490 feet TVD (true vertical depth) and net pay of 127 feet TVD, which bodes well for the prospects of five follow-on prospects in the Greater Carna Area,
Oil industry safety services provider Cosalt said trading in its first quarter has been in line with expectations. It was a different story at Lamprell, engineering services firm to the oil & gas industry, which issued a profit warning.
Internet publisher and advertiser Media Corp said it has received a number of approaches that could lead to a recommended cash offer for the group. |
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Asian markets end mixed; financials drop on profit taking
Mixed trading was witnessed in the major markets across the Asia-Pacific region on Friday, except Japan, which is closed for a holiday, following weak cues from Wall Street, where profit taking dragged the major indices lower despite a rise in commodity, gold prices. While resource stocks advanced on higher commodity prices, investors were skeptical over the moves of the U.S Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan towards quantitative easing through printing money that might stoke inflation in the long term.
In Asian trading, crude oil was modestly lower in electronic trading, after rising $3.47 to $51.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.
In Hong Kong, the bench mark Hang Seng Index ended down by 297 points, or 2.26%, at 12,833. The index, which opened higher at 13,157, declined further in early trading. After the first hour of trading, the selling pressure waned, resulting in sideways movement until late trading, when intensification of the selling pressure sent the index sharply lower. At the close of trading, the index was down 297.41 or 2.26% at 12,834.
Financial stocks dragged down the market on profit taking. Bank of Communications declined 5.42%, Bank of China fell 4.22%, ICBC or Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, dropped 5.43%, and CCB shed 5.24%. HSBC Holdings edged down 0.12% and Hang Seng Bank lost 3.06%
Telecom stocks also showed weakness. Hutchison Whimpoa fell 2.65%, and China Mobile declined 5.40%. Insurance stocks also ended weak. Ping An declined 3.93% and China Life fell 2.20%.
Among the gainers, Aluminum Corporation of China, or CHALCO, advanced 2.32%, CNOOC gained 1.21%, and Petrochina rose 1.48%. Citic Pacific, which gained more than 12% on Thursday, rose 2.70%, and Espirit Holdings advanced 4.07%.
In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index shed 14 points, or 0.4% to close at 3,466, and the broader All Ordinaries Index declined 12 points, or 0.35% to close at 3,405.
Financial stocks declined on profit booking. Investment bank Macquarie Group was down 4.55%. ANZ Bank lost 2.91%, Commonwealth Bank of Australia declined 1.47% and National Australia Bank dropped 1.44%. Westpac Banking shed 0.16%.
Retail stocks also ended weaker. David Jones, which rose sharply on Wednesday after reaffirming its outlook for the second half of 2009, declined 2.46%. Harvey Norman fell 5.20%, Wesfarmers shed 1.51%, and Woolworths dropped 0.79%.
However, resource stocks rose after a measure of six commodities traded in the London Metals Exchange rose 5.6% on Thursday.
BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world, gained 3.46% and Rio Tinto, the third largest mining company in the world, advanced 3.58%. Among the resource stocks, Oz Minerals surged up more than 11% after Citigroup revised the outlook for the stock to "buy" from "hold" in anticipation of government's approval for acquisition of the company by China Minmetals Group for a consideration of US$1.8 billion.
Woodside Petroleum gained 2.25%, and Santos, the third-largest producer of oil and gas in the country, advanced 1.95% on higher oil prices. However, Oil Search declined 0.78%.
Gold-related stocks also ended higher following higher gold prices in the bullion market. Lihir Gold added 2.76% and Newcrest Mining advanced 2.99%. However, Sino Gold ended lower by 0.18% after the recent spurt in stock prices, on profit taking.
In South Korea, the benchmark KOSPI Index, having opened 3 points higher from previous close of 1,161, traded in positive territory throughout the day in a narrow range of 1,163 to 1,180 amid alternate bouts of buying and selling, and finally ended up 9 points, or 0.74% at 1,172.
The U.S. dollar, after opening weak at 1,395 won compared to previous close at 1,396, rallied smartly and closed local trading at 1,412.50, up 16.50 during the day.
In a significant development, the South Korean Government, in an effort to arrest the sharp decline of the U.S. dollar against the local currency, has eased the regulations governing overseas borrowing by public companies. A number of private companies are reportedly eyeing at the overseas markets for borrowing following the weakening of the U.S dollar. In a statement, POSCO, the fourth largest steel-maker in the world, announced that it has raised US$700 million by selling debt overseas at the rate of 8.95%. The company intends to utilize the proceeds as operating capital.
Steel, shipbuilders and oil stocks led the gains, while financial stocks ended weaker as investors took profits following a recent rally.
Among the steel stocks, Hyundai Steel gained 4.43% and POSCO advanced 2.73%
Daewoo Shipbuilding advanced 5.13%, Samsung Heavy Industries rose 2.41% and Hyundai Heavy Industries gained 1.58%. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics showed a modest gain of 0.18%. Oil stocks also advanced on higher oil prices. S-Oil gained 2.29% and SK Holdings added 0.35%.
Technology stocks traded on a mixed note. Hynix Semiconductor declined 1.64%, while LG Electronics advanced 1.075 and LG Display rose 0.52%.
Financial stocks weakened on profit taking. Shinhan Financial Group lost 1.95%, Woori Finance ended down 0.42% and KB Financial Group, the holding firm of Kookmin Bank, decreased 0.62%.
Among the other major markets, China's Shanghai Composite Index ended higher by 15 points, or 0.68% at 2,281, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index advanced by 19 points, or 1.44% at 1,361, and Singapore's Strait Times Index gained 12 points, or 0.76% to 1,597. Taiwan's Weighted Index lost 74 points, or 1.48%, to close at 4,962. |