By James Langton
(October 12 – 13:00 EST) –
Despite all the gloomy indicators,
traders opened the TSE up about 40
points. The market has traded in a
very narrow range around that level
all morning. The TSE 300 is
currently up about 42 points at
midday.
Market volume has been average,
with 57 million shares changing
hands this morning. Up volume is
almost exactly matched with down
volume, although decliners are
outpacing advancers 9:7.
On a sector basis eight of the
TSE’s 14 subgroups are on the
upside. Real estate and gold are
the strongest groups, joined by
paper, utilities and energy stocks.
The blue chips in these groups
have led the buying with some
strong performances – MacBlo,
Barrick, Placer Dome, and
Poco Pete are driving the
resources higher thanks to
improving commodity prices. On
the utilities front it’s good old
Nortel and BCE that
are driving the trade.
Financials are the weakest
group of the day so far, joined by
the media stocks, or at least
Seagram’s. Among the
financials Clarica and
Manulife are the heaviest
traders, both to the downside. All
the banks are also on the downside,
led by BMO and CIBC,
off 80¢ and 75¢ respectively.
Worldwide interest rate concerns
are hitting these guys.
In Montreal the picture is the
same. The commodity-heavy sectors
are up, and the banks are down.
The ME is up eight points so far.
However both the small cap
exchanges are down – Alberta is
off 16.5 points and the VSE is
down 4.5 points.
In New York the bearish tone
did take hold, dragging the Dow
down 122 points at midday,
approximately its low for the day.
Rumours of a military coup in
Pakistan isn’t helping traders’
confidence either, driving some
into bonds. Nasdaq has fought
valiantly for a bull case, but at
noon its down about 12 points.
The S&P is off 13.