The Toronto Stock Exchange came back from heavy declines Thursday to achieve its fourth straight gain as oil prices turned positive and U.S. President Barack Obama's speech on financial reform did not add new provisions in the wake of the latest industry scandal.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 26.31 points, or 0.22%, to 12,160.87 after being down almost 150 points in the morning. Energy turned positive after being down earlier, though financials remained somewhat of a drag. Materials was the strongest sector.
One of the top-performing TSX stocks of the day was Teck Resources Ltd., which was up 5.47% to $43.99 after reinstating its dividend, which had stopped paying in November 2008. Another hot one was Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd., which was up 2.47% to $53.10.
The TSX Venture composite was up 4.54 points, or 0.28%, to 1,652.05.
After seeing some declines earlier in the day, crude oil closed up two cents to US$83.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold was down $5.90 to US$1,142.90 an ounce. The Canadian dollar closed at exactly US$1, down eight basis points from Wednesday.
Markets got off to a rocky start Thursday as data from the European Union revealed that Greece's 2009 deficit was at 13.6% of its gross domestic product versus the previously reported 12.7%. Ireland's was even higher at 14.3%.
Helping ease the market losses was a speech from Obama that did not -- as initially feared by some -- contain new restrictive provisions for Wall Street in the wake of the recent fraud lawsuit filed against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As well, there was optimism created by data showing existing home sales in the United States were up in March for the first time in four months.
Robert Kavcic, economist with BMOCapital Markets, said attention turned somewhat away from Greece and more toward the successful U.S. earnings as Thursday's session pressed on. One of the latest examples of better-than-expected profits came from Starbucks Corp. after the markets closed on Wednesday. Its stock gained 7.33% to US$27.25 on Thursday.
"I think overall, we've seen about 85% of companies beat expectations this earnings season already," Kavcic said, noting Canadian companies will have their own earnings parade in the coming weeks.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 9.37 points, or 0.08%, to 11,134.29. The Nasdaq was ahead 14.46 points, or 0.58%, to 2,519.07. There were declines in the main European and Asian markets.
