By James Langton
(April 10 – 12:30 ET) – After last week’s wild ride, markets are taking more measured steps into earnings season. The TSE 300 Composite Index is up 143 points at midday to 9608. Volume is moderate at 88.6 million shares, about 5:3 in favour of buyers. Advances are outpacing declines 11:8.
Today’s rally is broad-based, with only the merchandise and energy stocks sliding slightly. Industrials, utilities, media stocks, conglomerates, financials and pipelines are all posting some strong gains.
Power Corp. is driving the gains in financials. The word on the Montreal-based conglomerate (which is up 4%) is that it’s turning itself into a new media powerhouse through some of its media holdings. So it’s not a financials rally, per se.
Technology stocks are leading the way, but traders are picking their spots. The sector is not up uniformly. Nortel Networks is leading the gain, up 2.5%. BCE has gained almost 3%. This is helping stocks Certicom, Sierra Wireless and Cognos, which are all up strongly. However other popular techs, 724 Solutions, Ballard Power and MDSI are leading the losers.
Also notably up are old economy stocks Bowater and Boliden. Northrock Resources is the hot trade of the morning, up 56% on 7.6 million shares on news that U.S. giant Unocal is going to make a bid for the firm.
Despite the merger news, stocks are pretty mellow in New York, too. There the split between old economy and new economy continues, with the old economy taking the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 150 points at midday to 11261. Nasdaq has slipped modestly, down 52 points to 4394. The S&P is up eight ticks to 1524.
Small caps aren’t sharing the rally with small cap technology stocks dragging things down. The CDNX index is down 16 points to 4214 on moderate volume of 27.9 million shares. Techs are overwhelming some gains in mining and energy stocks. Abitibi Mining Corp. remains the hottest trade, down 15% to 17¢ a share on 1.7 million shares.