Trading Day: TSX has highest close of 2009 on rising growth prospects for Asia

By Gregory Thomas


Canadian stock markets staged a broad rally Tuesday, led by commodity stocks, after the Asian Development Bank said rising economic activity in China, India and Indonesia would push the region's growth to 3.9 per cent this year. Crude oil and natural gas, gold and base metals all made gains, helped by a sell-off in the U.S. dollar ahead of today's meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The S&P/TSX Composite index climbed 161.12 points, or 1.41 per cent, to 11,585.73, its highest close since Oct. 1. The the S&P/TSX Venture composite rose 16.63, or 1.3 per cent, to 1,281.63.

The price of gold climbed $10.60 to $1,015.50 US an ounce for the December contract, while October crude rose $1.84, or 2.6 per cent, to $71.55 US a barrel, and natural gas jumped 32 cents, or nine per cent, to $3.778 US per million Btu. December copper added 5.9 cents, or 2.1 per cent to $2.8645 US a pound, another factor pushing the Canadian dollar up 0.73 cents to 93.54 cents US, despite a pullback in Canadian retail sales in July, due partially to lower gas prices.

The oil patch was hot: Canadian Natural Resources, the second-largest Canadian natural gas producer, rose $2.72, or 3.7 per cent, to $76.64. Trinidad Drilling gained 25 cents, or 3.9 per cent, to $6.75, while Penn West Energy Trust added 56 cents, or 3.7 per cent, to $15.78 and Pengrowth Energy Trust climbed 46 cents, or 4.7 per cent, to $10.22.
Traders who sold HudBay Minerals on Nov. 21 at $2.70 were left shaking their heads as shares shot up $1.93, or 20 per cent, to $11.30. HudBay drilled 34.54 metres of grading 13.35 grams per tonne of gold, 27.98 grams per tonne of silver, 5.33 per cent copper and 0.35 per cent zinc at its Lalor project, 15 kilometres from the company's copper concentrator at Snow Lake, Manitoba. HudBay CEO Peter Jones said the core sample is "among the best I have seen in nearly 40 years in the mining business."
Vancouver-based Capstone Mining, rose 40 cents, or 14 per cent, to $3.25, after reporting drill results that further defined the Minto North deposit, 600 metres northwest of its existing Minto open-pit copper-gold mine, 240 kilometres from Whitehorse.
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Comment:
As TSX has highest close of 2009, this marks a milestone for Canada's economic index and for its Asian trade partners as well.Hope this is it.