TSX sectors rise, new records in U.S.

TORONTO — It was a positive day on both sides of the border as Canada’s main stock index pushed higher and U.S. stocks hit new record highs.

The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 72.25 points to 16,076.65, with the materials and base metals sectors leading the broadbased advance.

“Looking at all the sectors, they’re up — you have energy, materials and banking up. Overall, it’s a good day. I’ll take it,” said Allan Small, a senior investment adviser at Hollis-Wealth.

South of the border it was a similar story as most industries, including technology and health-care companies, posted solid gains. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 160.50 points to 23,590.83. The S&P 500 index added 16.89 points to 2,599.03 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 71.77 points to 6,862.48.

In addition to Tuesday’s record finishes on Wall Street, investors were also cheered by a report from Goldman Sachs analyst David Kostin, who forecast that the S&P 500 will rise about 14 per cent in 2018 if Congressional Republicans and U.S. President Donald Trump are successful in cutting corporate taxes.

Kostin said continued economic growth and lower taxes should help the S&P 500 rise to 3,100 by the end of 2020.

In Canadian corporate news, shares of RBC lost value amid news that the bank — the country’s biggest — is the first Canadian lender to be added to the Financial Stability Board’s list of global systemically important banks, which are deemed too big to fail. Its stock was down nine cents, or 0.09 per cent, to $100.92.

Retail giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. was also down after Canada’s competition watchdog closed a 3 1/2-year civil investigation and concluded that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support allegations that Canada’s largest grocer abused its dominant position in dealing with its suppliers. Its stock gave back 14 cents, or 0.20 per cent, to $68.94.

On the commodities front, the January crude contract advanced 51 cents to US$56.93 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down three cents at US$3.02 per mm-BTU.

The December gold contract was up US$6.40 to US$1,281.70 an ounce and the December copper contract added four cents to US$3.13 a pound.

In currency markets, the Canadian dollar was trading at 78.26 cents US, up 0.09 of a U.S. cent. VANCOUVER — The British Columbia Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Nevsun Resources to have a human rights case against the miner moved to the Eritrea.

The case, brought forward by three Eritrean refugees, alleges that international law norms against forced labour, slavery and torture were violated during the construction of Nevsun’s Bisha mine in the East African country.

Nevsun has argued that the case should be heard in Eritrea, but the B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld last year’s ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court that since Nevsun was a B.C. company, the province’s court had territorial jurisdiction. The appeal court said that while the practical and logistical difficulties of trying these claims in B.C. would be considerable, last year’s ruling was not wrong in finding that there was a real risk of corruption and unfairness in hearing the case in Eritrea.

The company declined to comment on the lawsuit because it’s still before the court.