Canadian markets open for business

TSE quiet but CDNX booming

By: IE Staff
August 23, 2000 August 23, 2000
12:02

By James Langton

(August 23 – 13:00 ET) – The Canadian markets are open for business today, although action has been fairly tame. At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 is down 12 points to 11,124. Volume is healthy at 76.6 million shares, about 4:3 in favour of buyers. Advancing issues are slightly outnumbering decliners.

Oils and miners are the only strong areas today. Just about every other sector is sliding. Financials are weakest, led by the banks. Transports and chemicals are down too.

The top trader of the day is Rio Algom, unchanged above its proposed takeout price at $26.25, with 3.7 million shares crossing the tape. Bombardier is next, up 3% on 3.2 million shares.

The other big takeover target, Clearnet, is down a quarter in strong trading. Telus is rebounding, up 1.4%. Nortel Networks is flat to down on 2 million shares. Telco Split and B Split are down, as is Alcatel. Weyerhauser, West Jet and Dupont are soft, too. Bank of Montreal is hitting the floor. It’s down about 5% as its third quarter results are bing questioned by analysts.

On the upside CGI Group has popped 10% in active trading, although there’s no news to explain the movement. There’s also strength at Research in Motion, Celestica, Open Text and MDS. The big upside movers though are the firms following oil prices up, that
includes TransAlta, Bonavista and Northstar Energy.

The CDNX is strong today. It’s up 15 points to 3371. Volume is tremendous after yesterday’s breakdown — 27.9 million shares. Techs are weak but the junior resources are strong, particularly oils. Linmor Inc. is the top trader, up 11% to $1.30 on 2.7 million shares.

Volume remains light today in New York as traders shrug off the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged. Interest-sensitive stocks, including banks and retailers, have been soft. Stocks opened sharply down, but are clawing their way back to the black at midday. The Dow Jones composite index is down about 23 points at 11,116. The Nasdaq is up a point at 3959, and the S&P is up two to 1500.