BlackBerry falls 26% as Golds Boost tsX

The Toronto stock market moved sharply higher Friday, as gains in the gold sector were more than enough to offset a 26% decline in BlackBerry stock after the smartphone maker surprised traders with a quarterly loss and disappointing revenue.

The S&P/TSX composite index ran up 123.33 points to 12,129.11.

BlackBerry shares tumbled $3.97 to $11.08 after saying that it lost US$84-million in the first quarter when the smartphone maker launched its latest Z10 touchscreen model.

On an adjusted basis, BlackBerry had a loss of $67-million or 13¢ per share. Analysts had expected an adjusted profit of 6¢ per share.

Besides the unexpected loss and disappointing revenue, analysts were uphappy with a lack of specific sales figures for BlackBerry’s new smartphones.

“They’re still not telling people how well they’re doing,” said Sadiq Adatia, chief investment officer at Sun Life Global Investment.

“We had seen a lot of negativity on BlackBerry before they initially announced the new product and the product itself is actually pretty good. (But) I think people are nervous because obviously BlackBerry has not done well on the execution side and so now they’re back to that stage of, ‘I don’t trust them.’ ”

The Canadian dollar fell 0.39¢ to US95.08¢ even as Statistics Canada reported that gross domestic product grew by 0.1%, which was in line with expectations.

U.S. indexes turned lower late in the session after three days of strong gains that reflected an atmosphere of calm that seemed to have settled on markets during this week. The Dow Jones industrials moved 114.89 points lower to 14,909.6, the Nasdaq gained 1.39 points to 3403.25 and the S&P 500 index ticked 6.92 points lower to 1606.28.

There was positive consumer news as the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index dipped to 84.1 in June from 84.5 the previous month. But that was still relatively high, as May’s reading was the highest since July 2007.

Markets sold off after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke indicated last week that the central bank could start winding up one of its signature stimulus programs, the purchase of US$85-billion worth of bonds every month with the aim of keeping long-term rates low.

Spooking traders was a spike in bond yields, with the benchmark 10-year treasury surging from 2.25% before Mr. Bernanke’s comments to as high as around 2.6%. But yields backed off Thursday after three Fed officials said markets are unrealistic in their anticipation of rate hikes down the road.