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Roundup: Canadian stock market rises as Valeant, gold shares boost

Xinhua, November 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto Thursday managed to follow the rising streak as the medical care giant Valeant and gold shares jumped sharply.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/ TSX Composite Index slightly added 73.86 points or 0.55 percent to close at 13,473.83 points.

Most of the eight influential sectors were in the green and Health Care led the increase by 2.66 percent, when Canada's drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. soared 15.34 percent to 111.79 Canadian dollars (about 84.07 U.S. dollars) per share after a Citigroup Global Markets analyst Murali Ganti wrote in a note on Thursday to make favorable comments about the drug company and recommended buying its debt.

The company has been suffering scrutiny from the U.S. lawmakers over its business practices, and its stock price has vapored nearly 70 percent, when compared with its peak at 346.32 Canadian dollars on the closing bell of August 5.

Meanwhile, the TSX index was also gaining strength from a significant rise in bullion prices, with the most active gold contract for December delivery rising 9.2 U.S. dollars, or 0.86 percent, to settle at 1,077.90 dollars per ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.

The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index increased 2.39 percent as Barrick Gold Corporation gained 4.26 percent to 10.04 Canadian dollars and Goldcorp Inc. also added 2.21 percent to 16.18 Canadian dollars.

However, the energy sector and the mining sector both dropped 1.54 percent over the falling oil prices.

The oil and gas producer Encana Corporation plunged 4.2 percent to 10.73 Canadian dollars and the base metals miner Teck Resources Limited declined 3.66 percent 6.06 Canadian dollars.

On the economic beat, Statistics Canada Thursday reported the latest unemployment compensation data, saying that there were 6,100 more people in September receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits compared with August, up 1.1 percent to 543,800. And most of the increase in September came from Alberta, Canada's biggest oil-producing province.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Thursday climbed to 0.7520 U.S. dollar at 4 O'clock (the Canadian Eastern Daylight Time), when compared with 0.7509 U.S. dollar on Wednesday, as the greenback edged lower. Enditem