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Canadian stocks advance as resources rise

Xinhua, April 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto rose on Monday as gold miners and major energy companies gained amid higher commodity prices.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 26.03 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 13,422.76 points. Three of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors end higher.

Oil prices went up Monday. West Texas Intermediate gained 64 cents to close at 40.36 U.S. dollars as major oil producers are set to meet in Doha on Sunday to discuss oil output.

The most influential movers on the index included Barrick Gold Corp., which rose 6.53 percent to 21.04 Canadian dollars (16.31 U.S. dollars) as gold hit a multi-week high, and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, which advanced 2.62 percent to 179.91 Canadian dollars.

Canadian Pacific Railway said on Monday it had scrapped efforts to buy Norfolk Southern Corp, almost six months after launching an unsolicited 28-billion-Canadian-dollar bid for the fourth-largest U.S. railroad operator.

The materials group moved higher by 3.62 percent despite losses for major fertilizer producers Potash Corp, which fell 1.35 percent to 20.49 Canadian dollars, and Agrium Inc, down 0.35 percent at 113.57 Canadian dollars.

The financials group ended slightly lower, with Royal Bank of Canada rising 0.13 percent to 74.91 Canadian dollars and Toronto-Dominion Bank retreating 0.11 percent to 54.41 Canadian dollars.

TransCanada Corp on Sunday said it had restarted the 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone crude pipeline at reduced pressure after receiving U.S. approval. TransCanada acquired 12 cents a share at 50.41 U.S. dollars.

National Bank Financial cut the rating on Alamos Gold to sector perform from outperform. Alamos shares picked up 2.99 percent to 8.27 Canadian dollars.

Canadian dollar rose to its highest level of 2016 in response to good news from oil deal.

After being pushed down as low as 68 U.S. cents in January, sentiment has turned around for the Canadian dollar.

"While the U.S. dollar has weakened against all these currencies since 20th January, it has depreciated the most against the dollars of Canada and Australia, which are large net exporters of commodities," said John Higgins of Capital Economics.

Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows net long positions stood at 97 contracts in the week ended April 5. That means more investors are betting on the Canadian dollar than are betting against it.

The Canadian dollar traded higher at 0.7753 U.S. dollar, compared with Friday's closing rate of 0.7691 U.S. dollar. Endit