By Stewart Lewis
(May 24 – 17:30 ET) – Active buying resumed on North American markets today. The NASDAQ composite index posted its first gain since last Tuesday. The NASDAQ rose 106.03 points to close at 3,270.58. Earlier in the day, it had been down as much as 121 points. The Dow Jones industrial average also bounced back from early declines and finished up 113.08 at 10,535.35.
Steady selling during the last few days wiped away most of the gains on the NASDAQ between November 1999 and March 2000. Buyers are now looking for blue chip bargains among the technology issues. Some of the big names to benefit included Cisco and Intel.
In Canada, the TSE 300 composite index regained its position above the 9000 mark, despite the fact that declining issued outnumbered advancing issues 660 to 445. It added 157.58 points, ending the day at 9144.16. Nortel Networks had a good day, climbing $4.75 to $77.70. Other tech stocks didn’t fare so well. BCE dropped 30¢ to $32.50. Certicom fell $9.70 to $14.75. ATI Technologies was hammered in morning trading completed the day off $10.70 at $14.75.
The CDNX fell, too, dropping 114.97 to 3200.36. Decliners outnumbered advancers on that exchange, as well. The final tally was 447 to 170, with 495 issues unchanged.
The Canadian dollar hit another record low for the year, closing at US66.19¢. It gathered strength early in the session before slipping lower again. It slumped to its lowest intraday level since August before stabilizing.