(August 31 – 18:00 ET) – The TSE finished on upside again today as advances in conglomerates, gold and Nortel pushed the index to a close of 11,247.91, a gain of 74.29 points.
Of the TSE’s subindices, only two dropped today — communications and oil — but they dropped less than 1%. Total volume on the day was only 167 million–a paltry amount considering 23 million were in Repap enterprises on the tail of the takeover news. Repap ended the day flat at 19.5¢ a share.
The conglomerate and consumer product indices led the way up, gaining 1.54% and 2.13% respectively.
The industrial products subindex was up on a 1.09% gain in Nortel, a 5.08% gain in Research in Motion, and a 4.41% gain in JDS Uniphase.
Some profit taking in Seagram’s, which had been rising steadily in advance of Canadian regulatory approval of its merger with Vivendi, was down $3.15 to $88.05. The drop pushed the communications subindex down .64%.
The CDNX finished the day at 3513.08, a gain of 65.83 points. Trading was heavy again, with 49.7 million shares trading hands. Overall, 358 issues advanced while 237 declined.
This morning’s positive real gross domestic product report helped the Canadian dollar. The loonie finished at US67.82¢., up from US67.70¢ yesterday.
Like the TSE, U.S. markets experienced broad-based advances. The NASDAQ composite index realized a triple digit gain on the day as the index shot up 102.54 points to finish at
4206.35. The Dow Jones industrial composite index added triple digits. It gained 112.09 points to finish at 11,215.10.