TSE 300 sets another record

Almost every sector finished the week in the black, too, Only real estate closed down, although oil service stocks and auto parts were also weak. Everything else was up, led by media stocks, consumers, paper, miners, golds and utilities.

Rio Algom was the belle of the ball today, closing up almost 10% to $28.85 on 12.5 million shares. Market speculation suggests that Noranda is going to counter Billiton’s friendly $27 a share bid for the firm. Noranda began the bidding earlier this week, and although Rio has agreed to the Billiton bid the feeling is that the company remains in play. Miners Sherritt and Teck also closed up sharply on the week.

Videotron also had a good day, closing up 2.4% after it announced support for Rogers bid despite the greater cash portion in rival Quebecor’s bid. Despite Videotron’s support, markets suspect that Rogers may have to increase its bid to make the deal fly. Quebecor finished up 9.5%.

Takeover target Clearnet joined the fun, closing up 1.5% on 1.9 million shares.

Market giant Nortel Networks was flat on the day in active trading. Strength though came in techs such as Plaintree Systems, which finished up 21% on 6 million shares. Strength also came in Mosaid, Pivotal, Tundra Semiconductor, along with Ballard Power, QLT and NPS Allelix.

Paper stocks came up with Abitibi trading well, rising 5% on 1.9 million shares. TD Bank led the financials higher on the day. Legg Mason was up nicely, too. Royal Bank was weak however after a strong response to its earnings earlier this week, and Merrill Lynch was down as well.

Heritage Concepts rose more than 3% on 7.2 million shares as it continues to enjoy its day in the sun.

In business news, Toronto Maple Leafs owner Steve Stavro announced that his grocery store chain, Knob Hill Farms Ltd., will close by the end of September. It had been speculated that Stavro would sell the hockey club to Rogers to pay down debt.

Today Air Canada’s pilots said they are willing to look at the latest proposal from a mediator and will come back to the table, spurring hope that a strike will be averted.

In New York today trading was light and the news was dominated by a hoax. The Dow finished the week up 9.9 points to 11,192.63, The Nasdaq composite slipped 10.6 points to 4,042.68, and the S&P 500 slipped 1.9 points to 1,506.45.

The big news today was Emulex. The firm lost US$2 billion in market cap, as much as 57% of its value, after a fake press release was disseminated suggesting that the firm would have to restate its results. Emulex s under investigation by the SEC and the firm’s CEO had resigned. The stock was halted much of the day and after it re-opened it recovered most of its value, still closing down $7. The FBI is reported to be investigating along with securities regulatory authorities. The effect of the bogus release was also felt at rivals QLogic, Brocade and even Intel.

The CDNX finished the week in the black too, closing up 29.5 points to 3,425.8 on average volume of 35.9 million shares. Techs led the way up 1.8%, followed by a 1.1% rise in oils and a 1% gain in miners. Masuparia Gold Corp. was the day’s top trader, up 17% to 42¢ on 1.2 million shares.