TSX gains as traders look for stability

TORON TO • The Toronto stock market closed sharply higher Monday as investors snapped up oversold stocks for a third day in hopes a bottom is close in the selloff that has plagued markets this month.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 110.09 points to 14,337.77 — its third straight triple-digit advance.

“It was incredibly encouraging to see we got that late-week rebound (last week), which suggests that the market isn’t so fragile,” said Craig Fehr, Canadian markets specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

The Canadian dollar slipped US0.06¢ of a cent to US88.62¢.

U.S. markets were higher with the Dow industrial average up 19.26 points to 16,399.67, held back by a 7% slide in IBM Corp. stock. The Dow heavyweight announced that its adjusted earnings were US$3.68 per share while revenue totalled US$22.4-billion. Analysts expected US$4.32 per share on revenue of US$23.39-billion. IBM also said that it will pay US$1.5-billion to GlobalFoundries Inc. to shed its costly chip division.

Nasdaq rose 57.63 points to 4,316.07 and the S&P 500 index rose 17.25 points to 1,904.01.

The gold sector was the leading group as the December gold contract gained US$5.70 to US$1,244.00 an ounce. The December copper contract was US2¢ at US$2.99 a pound.

The energy group was flat, with the November crude oil contract down US4¢ to US$82.71 a barrel.