Nortel rebound powers TSE higher

Evidently traders thought it was time to pile back into the networking giant — which has seen 20% of its share melt away this month — as shares in mighty-Nortel finished the day up $4.75 at $99.25, a gain of 5%.

The increase helped push the TSE 300 up 192.54 points to close at 10,749.57. Overall volume was strong with the 154 million shares trading. Advancers outnumbered decliners 549 to 534.

The industrial products group was up on the strength of Nortel, it increased 3.2%. Also finishing stronger was the financial services sector which was up a strong 2.26%. Consumer products and metals and minerals were also both up over 1%.

As with Nortel, most tech stocks did well today. Among individual issues, Sierra Wireless was up $7.25 at $99, Research in Motion was up $3.80 at $115.70 and JDS Uniphase climbed $1.85 to close at $155.50.

Among the financials, CIBC ended the day up $1.45 at $49.40, Bank of Nova Scotia ended up $1.30 at $41.40 and Bank of Montreal finished up $2.15 at $64.85.

It appears the battle of Videotron has been decided in favour of the hometown team. The Chagnon family, owners of Videotron, announced today that they had accepted a new offer of $5.4 billion takeover offer from Quebecor Inc. That works out to $45 a share for Videotron stock. Rogers will have to be content with a $241 million breakup fee. Stock in Videotron was up 25¢ at $43.95 at the end of the day.

Even though decliners outnumbered advancers 310 to 275, the CDNX finished the day up 13.91 points at 3,627.27.

Nortel and JDS were the most popular options on the Montreal exchange with volume of 9,299 and 2,090 respectively. Volume on the three-month Canadian Bankers Acceptance (BAX) was 25,447 and the 10-year Government of Canada Bond 4,441.

In the U.S., the major markets were all up. The Dow finished 51.05 points higher at 11,182.18. The Nasdaq composite was up 44.36 points at 3,893.87, and the S&P 500 finished the day higher at 1,484.91, up 2.92.