TORONTO — The Toronto stock market ended the last trading day of the quarter Thursday with a fourth consecutive session of gains.
The S&P/TSX composite index added 111.93 points to 13,300.87, with every sector in positive territory as the gain doubled just before the market closed ahead of the long, Canada Day weekend. The TSX Venture Exchange was up 11.75 points at 1,904.14.
Traders took in modestly positive Canadian economic growth data and news that Greece’s controversial austerity measures will go ahead. A pickup in manufacturing in the U.S. also pushed indexes higher.
The index ended the week up 391.98 points, with Thursday marking the end of the month and the end of the quarter when investors often book profits and close off trades. Canadian markets are closed Friday for Canada Day.
The Canadian dollar moved 0.65 of a cent higher to 103.68 cents US after Statistics Canada reported that real gross domestic product was unchanged in April compared with March, as both the goods producing and services sectors remained flat. Economists had been expecting a 0.1 per cent decline. The loonie ended the week 2.36 cents higher than last Friday.
Markets were also buoyed on news that the Greek parliament had passed a second austerity law, the last hurdle before Athens receives critical bailout funds.
Greek lawmakers passed a cost-cutting bill that had been working its way through that country’s parliament since Tuesday. The bill, which has caused violent protests in Greece, had to be approved before international lenders would release US$17 billion in rescue funds that the country needs to avoid defaulting on its debt.
A default by Greece would disrupt financial markets and lead banks to freeze lending to other heavily indebted European countries.
The passage of that bill has eased some tensions in global markets and is behind much of the solid performance on North American equity markets, which have now risen for four consecutive sessions, said Gary Aitken, director of equity research at Bissett Investment Management.
“There’s certainly been a lot of concern about what might happen in the event that (austerity measures) didn’t materialize but this now clearly paves the way for the approval for the next tranche of the bailout.”
Some of this week’s rise can also be attributed to investors squaring off their positions ahead of the end of the quarter, he added.
Investors also appeared to be more confident in the global recovery and have been more inclined to take risks in the past week, an attitude that is also largely responsible for a rise in commodities and the Canadian dollar, Aitken said.
The August crude oil contract added 65 cents to US$95.42 a barrel. On the TSX, shares in Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ) added 44 cents to C$40.43.
Gold closed down $7.60 to US$1,502.80 an ounce after a big gain Wednesday. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) lost 16 cents to C$46.65.
Copper added another six cents to US$4.27 a pound. Base metals miner Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX: TCK.B) added 97 cents to C$49.02.
The mining and energy sectors were among the largest gainers on the TSX.
Oil has moved from a recent low of US$90 a barrel to $95 a barrel in the past three days and copper prices have also increased considerably. Meanwhile, gold remains off recent highs.
“To the extent people are less concerned about some sort of real upheaval with the Greek situation, there’s less of that flight-to-safety trade that has been benefiting the gold sector,” Aitken said.
Major indexes eked out a three-month gain as a volatile quarter came to a close.
Wall Street also closed solidly higher. The Dow Jones industrial average closed ahead 152.92 points at 12,414.34 and the Nasdaq gained 33.03 points to 2,773.52, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 13.23 points to 1,320.64.
Traders were reassured by encouraging signals on the U.S. economy. A trade group reported that manufacturing in Chicago sped up unexpectedly in June. Analysts had forecast a decline.
U.S. data showed that slightly fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the level of claims is still high at 428,000.