By Jeff Sanford
(June 26 – 16:30 ET) – As market makers continue to hold their breath, waiting for word from Alan Greenspan this week, Canadian markets were up slightly on light volume today. The TSE composite index closed 136.31 points higher to finish at 10,227.40. On volume of just under 102,000,000 shares, decliners outnumbered advancers 563 to 526 with 241 issues remaining unchanged.
Nine of 14 sub-indices fell lower today. Industrial products posted a gain of 436.50 points, a 3.46% improvement. This was largely on the strength of Nortel that picked up another $4.95 to bring its share price to $101.50. On the downside were oil and gas, paper and forest products and pipelines.
In individual stocks, CGI was down another 9.59% on negative earnings news,while Winspear Diamonds Inc. was up a dramatic 73% on news that the board of directors at DeBeers has decided to make a cash offer for all of the shares of Winspear.
The CDNX finished slightly down, closing 11.84 points lower at 3,459.12. The Canadian dollar finished the day at US67.34.¢
On the U.S. front, all of the indexes were higher, though activity seems to be similarly restrained in front of this week’s Federal Reserve Board meeting.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 138.24 points at 10,542.99. The NASDAQ composite was also up, finishing up 66.78 points higher for a close of 3,912.12. The S&P 500 also closed higher, finishing at 1,455.31, a gain of 13.83 points.