TSX POSTS SOLID GAIN FOR SECOND DAY

TORONTO • The Toronto Stock Exchange posted a solid advance for a second consecutive session Tuesday, with almost all sectors higher as oil prices rose and prospects improved for a deal on Greek debt.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 114.43 points at 14,904.91, adding to Monday’s 137-point gain as the heavyweight mining, energy and financials sectors all trended higher.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial closed up 24.29 points at 18,144.07, while the Nasdaq gained 6.12 points to a record 5,160.10, and the S&P 500 rose 1.35 points to 2,124.20.

Allan Small, senior investment adviser at Holliswealth, said the markets are trending higher as investors begin to bet that the Greek government will make a last-minute deal with creditors to stave off default and a potential exit from the euro.

“The markets, for a long time, have kind of anticipated that there would be a deal, but every time we heard some negative news, it was an opportunity for the market to sell off,” he said.

Greece faces the possibility of falling short on a €1.6-billion ($2.2-billion) loan repayment to the IMF due by the end of the month if it doesn’t reach an agreement to extend its current bailout deal with the EU, which expires June 30.

The loonie was down 0.05 of a cent at 81.08 cents US. Small said the Canadian dollar could move even lower if the U.S. increases interest rates in the fall as many analysts are expecting.

“I don’t believe an interest-rate increase has been factored into the exchange rate as of yet,” he said. “I think it’s very possible that you could see our dollar fall more in the second half of this year.”

In commodities, the August crude contract was up 63 cents at $61.01 US a barrel. Small said the price of oil seems to have found an equilibrium that satisfies investors and doesn’t have a significant impact on production.

“There’s this point for the price of oil whereby you have a happy medium where the taps are not being opened and not being closed,” he said.

August gold fell $7.50 to $1,176.60 US an ounce, and July copper advanced almost five cents to $2.61 US a pound.

Amaya Inc. enjoyed a nice bounce a day after chairman and CEO David Baazov was re-elected to the company’s board at its annual general meeting despite an ongoing insider-trading investigation by Quebec’s securities regulator. The stock rose $1.29 or 3.63 per cent to $36.85 with more than one million shares changing hands, much heavier than its usual daily volume of some 650,000 shares.

The markets, for a long time, have kind of anticipated that there would be a deal