Bay Street Stocks Add To Week's Rally

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | July 17 2009 2:59 PM

RTTNews - Toronto stocks are up again on Friday and headed toward a fifth straight positive session. Strength in the resource sectors has driven the market higher.

Sponsorship Link

The S&P/TSX Composite Index has added 81.58 points or 0.79% at 10,386.00. The market is on target to extend its highest close of the month.

Mining stocks are up 3.4% as copper jumped in Comex trading. First Quantum (FM.TO) has added 6.5%, FNX Mining (FNX.TO) has gained 5.1%, Thompson Creek Metals (TCM.TO) is up 4.5% and Teck Resources (TCK.B.TO) has gained 4.2%.

Energy stocks are up 1.9%. Niko Resources (NKO.TO) has rallied 4%, Suncor (SU.TO) is up 3.9% and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) has gained 2.5%.

Materials stocks are up 1.8% and gold stocks have rallied 1.4%. Goldcorp (G.TO) has gained 2.2%, Kinross (K.TO) is up 2% and Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) is up 1.8%.

Bradmer Pharmaceuticals (BMR.TO) has soared 36% after the company announced it will buy back up to 8.3 million shares of its outstanding stock at $0.20 per share.

Patheon (PTI.TO) has dropped 3.8% after the company announced that it has signed an agreement with EMCOR Facilities Services, a subsidiary of Emcor Group (EME) for facilities and energy management services at its three US plants.

TransCanada Corp. (TRP.TO) on Friday announced the the appointment of Russell Girling as chief operating officer of the company, effective immediately. Shares are up 0.3%.

In economic news, Canadian consumer prices data dropped 0.3% in June compared with June 2008, following a 0.1% increase in May, according to data released Friday by Statistics Canada. Excluding energy, the CPI rose 2.1% in June. The results were in line with analysts expectations.

Meanwhile, the Canadian leading index fell by 0.1% in June, after the rate of decline had slowed markedly from 1.0% in April to 0.1% in May. In June, 4 of 10 components rose, the same number as in May.

Also across the border, the U.S. Commerce Department revealed that housing starts rose 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 582,000 units in June from a revised pace of 562,000 units in the previous month.

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com