By James Langton
(June 30 – 13:00 ET) – The first long weekend of the summer is on the horizon, and with Bay Streeters licking their wounds from the RT Capital scandal fall-out, trading has been understandably quiet.
U.S. markets will be open Monday, although few traders are expected expected to show since they’ll be closed Tuesday for the July 4th U.S. holiday.
Volume has been desperate this morning at just 47.6 million shares, about 5:2 in favour of buyers. Advancers are ahead of decliners about 5:4. But with minimal trading, Nortel Networks is even more influential than usual. Nortel is up about 2.4% on 2.6 million shares, on little more than good feeling for tech stocks. As a result the TSE 300 is up 133 points to 10244. All the TSE’s 14 major groups are up, with strong moves coming in conglomerates, consumers, golds, miners and utilities.
Along with Nortel, techs are leading the way. JDS Uniphase, Certicom, Research in Motion, BCE, Certicom, Alcatel and Ballard Power are all strong. Exfo Electro-Optical Engineering is having a huge debut day mostly on the Nasdaq Composite Index, but it’s up 85% so far in active TSE trading to $64.75.
Pangea Goldfields is up strongly this morning on news that Barrick Gold Corp. is offering $204-million in cash for the firm. Barrick is offering a 52% premium on the stock.Trimark Financial Corp. also continues to trade actively, inching ever-closer to its $27 takeout price, now at $26.85.
In New York, trading remains quiet, too. Nortel, joined by rivals Lucent Technologies Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. are driving gains there too. At midday the Nasdaq is up 49 points to 3926. The Dow though is down 30 points to 10367. The S&P has gained three points to 1445.
The small caps are sliding this morning in light trading. The CDNX has dropped 19 points to 3430. Volume is soft at 15.7 million shares. Miners and techs are leading the downside, while oils are up. International Wayside Gold is the top trader down 22% to $1.59 on almost 2 million shares.