Canada's main stock climbs on back of US strength

Canada's main stock index closed at the highest Friday in more than two years, taking its cue from fresh all-time highs hit on Wall Street and positive development in Japan. After being closed for Christmas and Boxing Day holidays, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index rose 69.96 points, or 0.52 percent, to 13,587.98 at the close, logging a two-week winning streak since Dec. 13. And it recorded the highest closing since June 1, 2011, when the index closed at 13527.88 points. The record run in the past 10 days in New York and the positive developments in Japanese stocks indicated that investors were confident in the world economy recovery. US stock indexes closed slightly lower on Friday, but recorded solid weekly gains. The Dow closed higher for a sixth consecutive session on Thursday, and is on track for its best yearly gain since 1996. And the S&P 500 also hit a record high on Thursday and the Nasdaq Composite ended at its highest level since September 2000. Besides, the Nikkei 225 average rewrote its highest closing level in six years Friday. The key market gauge inched 4.50 points up to 16,178.94, its best finish since Nov. 6, 2007. On Thursday, the Nikkei gained 164.45 points. Base metals led the gains on the TSX. Shares in HudBay Minerals Inc., a Toronto-based producer of copper concentrate and zinc metal, climbed 1.64 percent, to 8.67 Canadian dollars, while copper and zinc giant, Teck Resources Ltd., gained 2.35 percent to 27.44 Canadian dollars. Energy shares were up 0.64 percent. Imperial Oil added 0.86 percent to 47.11 Canadian dollars, while Suncor rose to 37.24 Canadian dollars. The financials and the telecom shares rose 0.41 percent and 0.85 percent respectively. BlackBerry shares dipped 5.1 percent to 7.83 Canadian dollars, which pulled down the info tech sector by 1.21 percent. It was reported that co-founder Mike Lazaridis of the struggling Canadian smartphone maker had cashed in 26 million Canadian dollars' worth of shares. The transaction would bring Lazaridis' stake in the tech maker to 5 percent. The Canadian dollar was down to 0.9305 US dollar Friday, compared with 0.9403 U.S. dollar in Tuesday's trading.