Dundee Industrial prepares to make splash with big IPOFrank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The Toronto Stock Exchange closed slightly higher, pulled down by declines in most sectors, particularly gold, but boosted by a 13 per cent spike in shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.
The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 9.13 points at 12,667.22. The Canadian dollar was down 0.25 of a cent to 96.89 cents US.
According to reports, Valeant is close to a $9-billion deal to acquire eye-care company Bausch & Lomb Holdings. The rumours sent Valeant shares up $10.18 to $87.02.
Meanwhile, shares in Barrick Gold fell more than two per cent to $19.69 after the world's largest gold miner was fined $16-million (U.S.) by Chilean authorities for "very serious" environmental breaches. Chile's environmental regulator also suspended Barrick's $8.5-billion Pascua-Lama project in Andes.
On Wall Street, markets were mixed after being down for most of the day. The Dow Jones industrials average saw an uptick of 8.60 points to 15,303.10, but the Nasdaq lost 0.28 points to 3,459.14 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.91 of a point to 1,649.60.
Meanwhile, commodities continued to see modest declines as June gold bullion lost $5.20 to $1,386.60 (U.S.) an ounce while the July crude contract was down 10 cents to US$94.15 a barrel. July copper was down a penny at $3.29 a pound.