News

The Toronto stock market moved up to a new record high Tuesday as stronger financial shares more than offset weak resource stocks — particularly energy.

“If you look at the TSX over time, it really is a commodity exchange — in fact, even the dollar is very commodity-oriented as well,” said John Stephenson, senior vice-president and portfolio manager at First Asset Funds.

“So I think you've seen a shift — commodities were hot for a few weeks and have had a nice little run and now we're seeing a bit of a pullback.”

New York markets were also positive on a strong outlook from Wal-Mart and lower oil prices, while investors also took in the proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index advanced 28.10 points to 13,319.65.

The financial sector was up 0.9 per cent. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce climbed $1.55 to $104.25 and Royal Bank of Canada moved up 97 cents to $55.60.

The energy sector was off the lows of the session but still down 0.55 per cent as the March contract for light sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.32 U.S. to $58.07 a barrel amid forecasts of mild weather in the northeastern U.S.

EnCana Corp. lost 30 cents to $56.40 (Canadian) while Petro-Canada slipped 59 cents to $43.77.

BlackWatch Energy Services Trust fell $1.76 or 42 per cent to $2.39 after suspending distributions because of slack oil and gas field activity in Western Canada.

Investors also took in data showing tame inflation as lower gasoline and natural gas prices trimmed the inflation rate to 1.2 per cent in January, from 1.6 per cent in December.

The core rate, which ignores volatile factors such as food and energy, met expectations at 2.1 per cent.

“Inflation in Canada remains well-behaved, with the core rate just a shade above the official target, and does not jeopardize our view that the bank will hold the policy rate steady at 4.25 per cent in 2007,” said RBC economist Dawn Desjardins.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.48 of a cent to 85.40 cents (U.S.). The TSX Venture Exchange moved 1.22 points higher to 3,124.15.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 19.07 points to 12,786.64, topping Friday's previous record for the blue-chip measure after Monday's U.S. market closing for Presidents Day.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 16.73 to 2,513.04 and the S&P 500 climbed 4.14 to 1,459.68.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported fourth-quarter profit growth of 8.8 per cent to $3.94-billion, beating analyst estimates, and issued a bullish forecast. Its shares rose 3.7 per cent to $50.28.

XM Satellite rose 10.2 per cent to $15.41 and Sirius Satellite moved up 6 per cent to $3.92.

It wasn't immediately clear how the proposed merger would affect the two companies' partners in Canada, but XM Canada operator Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. pulled back $1.04 (Canadian) or 12 per cent to $7.40 after an initial surge of more than 25 per cent on Monday's merger news.

Elsewhere on the TSX, the gold sector lost 1.1 per cent. The April contract for gold on the Nymex declined $11.80 (U.S.) to $661 an ounce. Kinross Gold Corp. lost 42 cents (Canadian) to $15.08.

Utilities were also weak with Fortis Inc. off 28 cents to $27.66.

The information technology sector provided some lift for the TSX with Research In Motion Ltd. up $4.64 to $165.92 and Celestica Inc. ahead 16 cents to $7.63.

Overall TSX declines beat advances 860 to 749 with 222 unchanged as 424.7 million shares traded worth $6.5 billion.

Canadian National Railway Co. climbed 19 cents to $53.94 as Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn readied legislation to order 2,800 striking workers back to their jobs.

Shares in Silver Wheaton Corp. were down 7 cents to $12.33 after the silver-mining spinoff of Goldcorp Inc. reported a 237 per cent increase in annual profit to $85.2-million (U.S.) as sales grew 124 per cent to $158.5 million on a 39 per cent increase in volume.

Allen-Vanguard Corp. fell 50 cents (Canadian) to $5.25 after the bomb protection specialist increased its planned equity issue to $50 million from $35 million.