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Canadian market opens week ahead on Industrials and IT

Xinhua, December 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto grew for a third straight session as gains Industrial and Information Technology stocks pushed the index ahead on Monday.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite moved up 17.65 points, or 0.12 percent, to end the day at 15,269.85 points. Seven of the ten sub-sectors finished the session in the positive.

Information Technology and Industrials groups had the biggest influence on the day, gaining 1.55 percent and 0.40 percent, respectively.

Gains in Information Technology group was led by smartphone developer Blackberry Limited announcing the opening of an Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre near the city of Ottawa. The firm plans to invest 100 million Canadian dollars (about 75 million U.S. dollars) in as many as 650 engineers over the upcoming years to enter the self-driving car industry. Shares of the Waterloo-based firm rose 2.28 percent to 10.34 Canadian dollars (7.71 U.S. dollars).

Within the IT group, DH Corporation and CGI Group Inc. shares also climbed, rising 2.29 percent and 1.43 percent, respectively.

Industrials group moved forward as Bombardier Inc. stock soared 6.83 percent to 2.19 Canadian dollars (1.63 U.S. dollars) each. Shares of the Montreal-based firm continued to rally after providing a strong five-year forecast last week. On Monday, they were the most actively traded stock with more than 13 million shares exchanged.

Other groups to finish in the green were Health Care (2.15 percent), Telecommunications (0.62 percent), Consumer Staples (0.11 percent), Financials (0.06 percent), and Energy (0.01 percent).

Financials group stayed afloat as shares of Toronto-based insurance firm Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited fell 1.54 percent to 605.00 Canadian dollars (450.85 U.S. dollars) after announcing the acquisition of Swiss insurance firm Allied World for 4.9 billion U.S. dollars, an 18 percent premium to Allied World's last closing price. The deal is expected to be finalized by the second quarter of 2017.

Groups that finished in the negative on Monday were Consumer Discretionary (0.60 percent), Materials (0.07 percent), and Utilities (0.03 percent).

Materials group, which consists of producers of gold, precious metals and fertilizers, slipped as the price of copper fell 5.92 cents (2.32 percent) to 2.4916 U.S. dollars a pound. Firms that predominately mine for copper were hit hard during the session, as Lundin Mining Corporation and HudBay Minerals Inc. saw shares sink 6.72 percent and 5.64 percent, respectively.

Price of gold moved up 5.20 dollars to 1141.40 U.S. dollars an ounce. Barrick Gold, the world's largest producer of gold saw shares climb 0.79 percent to 19.10 Canadian dollars (14.23 U.S. dollars).

The Canadian dollar opened the week down 0.0042 to 0.7452 U.S. dollars. Endite