By James Langton
(March 22 – 17:00 ET) – There’s nothing traders like better than to have the world figured out. They expected a 25 basis point hike from both the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Today the BOC obliged and markets took off. The TSE 300 closed up 220 points to 9,871. Volume was unremarkable at 166.5 million shares, about 8:7 in favour of buyers. Advancers outstripped decliners 13:11.
Strange bedfellows, technology and financials, drove the trade. Metals and golds were slaughtered. The same trends prevailed in the U.S. where the Nasdaq added 153 points to 4,864, off intraday highs that put it back within spitting distance of 5,000.
The Dow dropped 41 points to 10,867 in a desultory trade. Some traders took profits from yesterday’s big rallies. The S&P closed to all time high at 1,500, up seven points.
Within the TSE software was the hottest group, up almost 6%. Technology hardware wasn’t far behind. Nortel Networks added 5% today after investors brightened their outlook on yesterday’s Coretek merger plan. Rumours of earnings trouble at rival Lucent also boosted Nortel while slamming Lucent.
Big rallies came in the form of Certicom, up 19%, Cognos up 18%. Research in Motion, 724 Solutions, Ballard Power and Hummingbird all rose impressively.
The financials were led by the insurers and Power Financial, with the banks close behind. The sector is anticipating Sun Life’s $2 billion IPO tomorrow. Scotiabank added more than 6%, CIBC was up almost 5%. Royal added $3 and TD and Bank of Montreal were up too.
Alcan led the miners down, off almost 7%. Inco dropped $1.35. Barrick and Placer led the golds down. A few new economy and wannabe new economy stocks also lost today, including Rogers Communications, Infowave Software, Cryptologic and Informission Group.
The small caps continued to struggle this afternoon. The CDNX index closed down 36 points to 4,368. Volume was average at 87.5 million shares. Technology weakness sabotaged some buying in miners and oils. Online grocer Peachtree Network had a sparkling debut, closing up 155% to $2.55 on almost 2.9 million shares.