Scary October ends with TSX on a roll

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index ended a frightening October trading session on a positive by posting a triple-digit gain for a second day in a row.

October is typically a seasonally weak month, but heading into Halloween day trading it was the worst in a decade before the uptick.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 132.78 points to 15,027.28 on broad-based gains led by the health-care sector, which includes the big marijuana companies.

“Hallelujah,” said Allan Small, senior investment adviser with HollisWealth. “We had I guess a bit of a relief rally. Whether or not this can be sustained over the longer term remains to be seen.”

It follows Tuesday’s gain of 172.75 points for a 1.17 per cent increase on the Toronto exchange.

Still, the market lost more than 1,000 points or 6.5 per cent in October.

Small is hopeful of gains for the last two months of 2018, but says that is likely not enough to turn around the entire year.

“I think we see perhaps numbers getting a little better as we get into the year-end. Will we turn positive?. That might be a bit of a stretch but there’s always hope, I guess,” he said in an interview.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 241.12 points to 25,115.76 for a 5.1 per cent decrease in October. The S&P 500 index was up 29.11 points to 2,711.74 but off 6.9 per cent in the months. The Nasdaq composite rose 144.25 points at 7,305.90 but lost 9.2 per cent in October.

The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.09 cents US compared with an average of 76.14 cents US on Tuesday.

The U.S. markets were helped by good results Tuesday evening by Facebook, followed by strong reports by GM, Estee Lauder and other large companies.

That prompted a wave of buying, just as investors moved in lockstep in the selloff, said Small.

“I don’t think this is the end of the bull market. I think this is a pullback and a correction in a long bull run,” he said, adding that the days of double-digit stock growth are past. “We have to manage our expectations.” The December crude contract was down 87 cents at US$65.31 per barrel or off 10.8 per cent in October and the December natural gas contract was up 7.4 cents US$3.26 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$10.30 at US$1,215.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up half a cent at US$2.66 a pound.

• RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust had a third-quarter profit of $130.3 million, down from $184.6 million a year ago.

The shopping mall owner said the profit amounted to 41 cents per unit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of 56 cents per unit a year ago.

• TransAlta Corp. reported a loss of $86 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $27 million a year ago. The power producer says the loss amounted to 30 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of nine cents per share in the same quarter last year.

• Barrick Gold Crop. has enriched its offer to shareholders of Randgold Resources Ltd. ahead of a vote on a proposed merger. Toronto-based Barrick says Randgold shareholders will receive $2.69 US per share, up from the original proposal of $2 per share. The company says the increased offer would match what Randgold shareholders would expect to receive as dividend payments without the merger.

• Better-than-expected results at Taco Bell and KFC helped Yum Brands top Wall Street’s forecasts in the third quarter.

Yum said profit rose 8.6 per cent to $454 million, or $1.40 per share.