MARKETS END YEAR ON POSITIVE NOTE
TORONTO • The Toronto stock market closed higher Tuesday as investors closed the books on a year that saw a solid advance. The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 40.16 points to 13,621.55 with gains for the day led by the battered gold sector, by far the biggest loser on the Toronto market this year. The TSX ended 2013 up 9.55% for the year, with the advance racked up over the last five months.
“The back half of the year was really the inflection point,” said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
The Canadian dollar closed up US0.04¢ to US94.02¢.
U.S. indexes also ended the year higher as traders digested a mixed bag of data on home prices, consumer confidence and manufacturing.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 72.37 points to a new closing high of 16,576.66, adding up to a gain of 26.5% for 2013. Nasdaq was ahead 22.39 points to 4,176.59, up 38% this year to its highest level in 13 years. The S&P 500 index was up 7.29 points to 1,848.36 for a gain of 29% for 2013, its best year since 1997.
The gains on the final trading day of the year came as Standard & Poor’s/CaseShiller 20-city home price index rose 0.2% from September to October, down from a 0.7% increase from August to September, as higher mortgage rates weighed on sales and dampened the housing recovery.
For the year, U.S. home prices reflected big gains in earlier months. They rose 13.6% over the past 12 months, the fastest pace since February 2006 — before the U.S. real estate crash.
TSX gains for the year would have been greater if not for deep losses in the mining sectors. The gold sector fell about 48% for the year while the precious metal has fallen about 28%, the first annual loss since 2000.
On Tuesday, the gold sector was the major advancer, up just more than 2% while the February contract on the Nymex shed early losses to move up US$1.50 to US$1,202.30 an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. climbed 51¢ to $18.71.
Outside of the mining sectors, most TSX sectors did quite well for the year.
Financials were up 22% for the year. Insurance companies were particularly strong performers as companies benefited from strong stock market gains and rising bond yields.
Industrials also had a good year, up about 35% as railroad stocks shot ahead, helped along in large part by rising shipments of crude oil.
The consumer discretion sector jumped about 40%. Many stocks almost doubled over the past 52 weeks, including auto-parts makers Magna International Inc., Linamar Corp. and Martinrea International Inc.
The TSX energy sector was ahead 0.47% Tuesday, for a gain of about 9.5% for the year. The February crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed US87¢ lower to US$98.42 a barrel.
Most TSX sectors were positive but the tech sector shed 0.3%. However, BlackBerry Ltd. gained 18¢ to $7.90, a long way from its 52-week high of $18.49.