North American stocks rose cautiously at the start of trading on Monday after Greece agreed upon austerity measures that should allow the country to receive another round of bailout from the euro zone.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 55 points or 0.4 per cent, to 12,856. The broader S&P 500 rose 7 points or 0.6 per cent, to 1,350. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 42 points or 0.3 per cent, to 12431.
The gains follow a weekend deal that more or less ended concerns that Greece was sliding into a messy default on its debt obligations. However, the deal comes at a price, which could be weighing on stocks: Rioting over budget cuts paralyzed Athens and anti-German sentiment within Europe is on the rise.
Nonetheless, economically sensitive stocks showed some of the biggest gains. Bank of America Corp. rose 2.4 per cent, Alcoa Inc. rose 1.1 per cent and Chevron Corp. rose 0.8 per cent.
Among Canadian stocks, Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. COS-T rose 3.1 per cent, Royal Bank of Canada RY-T rose 0.5 per cent and Suncor Energy Inc. SU-T rose 0.6 per cent. However, Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T fell 0.3 per cent after it announced that it would sell its stake in Russia’s Highland Gold, the company’s only Russian asset.
Commodity prices moved higher: Crude oil CL-FT rose to $99.78 (U.S.) a barrel, up $1.11. Gold GC-FT rose to $1,732.60 an ounce, up $7.30.
