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Energy helps Canadian stocks open week ahead

Xinhua, November 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto started the week positively as rising crude oil and natural gas prices contributed.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 43.04 points, or 0.30 percent, to end the session at 14,598.45 points. Six of the ten sub-sectors ended the day higher.

TSX Energy group saw the biggest jump on the day, rising 1.21 percent as crude oil and natural gas prices both gained on the day.

A barrel of Brent crude oil grew 0.25 percent to 44.75 U.S. dollars in London for January delivery. Meanwhile, December natural gas prices on New York Mercantile Exchange soared 5.19 percent to 2.75 U.S. dollars per million British thermal units.

Calgary-based energy companies Encana Corporation and Baytex Energy Corp. shares rose 2.45 percent and 2.17 percent, respectively.

Materials sub-sector, which feature miners of gold and other precious metals, also performed well, rising 0.62 percent despite gold prices falling 6.30 U.S. dollars an ounce to 1218.30.

Toronto-based Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. shares spiked 5.60 percent to 8.49 Canadian dollars (6.26 U.S. dollars) after the miner rejected multiple takeover bids led by South African-based Gold Fields, the seventh-largest gold producer in the world, for a reported 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Kirkland owns and operates five mines across Northeastern Ontario and Quebec in Canada with an expected production of 270,000 to 290,000 ounces of gold this year.

Financials and Health Care stocks also finished in the green, rising 0.78 percent and 0.51 percent, respectively.

The Consumer Discretionary group, which feature producers of non-essentials products such as automobiles, apparel and entertainment, climbed 0.27 percent as gambling company Amaya Inc. shares rose 14.39 percent to 20.98 Canadian dollars (15.48 U.S. dollars) after their former CEO made a 3.48 billion Canadian dollar (about 2.57 billion U.S. dollar) bid to privatize the company.

The Montreal-based Amaya currently owns a collection of online gambling brands with more than 105 million registered customers. The most well-known brand is PokerStars, the world's largest online poker room in the world with an estimated 71 percent market share.

Groups that did not come out ahead on Monday were Information Technology and Utilities, dipping 1.54 percent and 1.37 percent, respectively.

Outside of the ten subgroups, shares of Canopy Growth Corp. rocketed 19.49 percent to 11.16 Canadian dollars (8.24 U.S. dollars) after releasing strong second quarter financials earlier in the day. The Smith Falls-based producer and seller of medical marijuana saw revenues soar 245 percent to 8.5 million Canadian dollars (about 6.3 million U.S. dollars) compared to the same period last year.

The Canadian dollar inched down 0.0003 to end the day at 0.7379 U.S. dollars. Endit