TSX ends day within five points of record

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index set a new intraday record Monday and indices south of the border continued their streak as markets were buoyed by increasing investor confidence a U.S. tax bill would soon pass.

The S&P/TSX composite index surged 89.66 points to 16131.64 after spiking as high as 16200.81 earlier in the session.

It fell less than five points shy of breaking its all-time high of 16136.59, reached just last week, on Dec. 13.

In New York, three major indices finished the trading day with a second consecutive day of record highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 140.46 points to 24792.20 and the S&P 500 index rose 14.35 points to 2690.16.

The Nasdaq composite index advanced 58.18 points to 6994.76. It briefly hovered above the 7000-mark for the first time earlier in the day.

“The real backbone for that, today, is again enthusiasm coming out of the United States that a tax reform bill … looks like it’s going to make it through Congress and potentially get signed by the president later this week,” said Craig Fehr, a Canadian market strategist with Edward Jones in St. Louis.

“[It] offers the hope for improving corporate fundamentals,” he said.

On Bay Street, the biggest gains came from the health-care sector, where stocks gained an average of 3.81 per cent of their worth, though that was mostly a one-stock story, said Fehr.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. led not only the sector, but also the index. Shares jumped $1.89 or 7.44 per cent to $27.28.

The boost came as the company announced its subsidiary Bausch + Lomb has started to distribute an eye treatment to U.S. wholesale pharmaceutical distributors.

The loonie closed at an average trading price of 77.73 cents US, down 0.19 of a U.S. cent.

The February crude contract fell 11 cents to $57.22 US per barrel and the January natural gas contract gained about 13 cents to roughly $2.75 US per mmBTU.

The February gold contract advanced $8.00 to $1,265.50 US an ounce and the March copper contract added about a penny to roughly $3.15 US a pound.