TORONTO - The Toronto stock market maintained an advance Monday morning as shares in BCE Inc. surged following Friday's Supreme Court of Canada ruling clearing the way for a $52-billion buyout by an investment group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
Energy stocks headed higher as oil prices rose despite a weekend meeting at which Saudi Arabia undertook to raise production.
New York equity markets remained weak following steep losses last week as investors took in merger and acquisition activity in the agribusiness sector and news of possible big layoffs at banking giant Citigroup.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index moved 67.35 points higher to 14,648.02 at midmorning, after a drop in financial and energy stocks chipped 1.4 per cent from the index last week.
BCE shares jumped $3.28 or 9.5 per cent to $37.88 -- still well under the proposed takeover price of $42.75 -- after the Supreme Court quashed a Quebec Court of Appeal decision that the deal was unjust to bondholders.
The banks financing the takeover -- Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Toronto-Dominion Bank -- said they "stand behind our original commitment to the transaction." However, the various parties "continue to negotiate the financing documents," and the scheduled end-of-June completion of the deal has been moved back to September.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.02 of cent to 98.35 cents US while the TSX Venture Exchange moved 13.02 points lower to 2,603.29.
New York's Dow Jones industrial average edged up 10.91 points to 11,853.6 after sliding 220 points Friday to a three-month low.
The Nasdaq composite index slipped 2.30 points to 2,403.79 while the S&P 500 index gained 1.33 to 1,319.26.
Investors focused on the U.S. Federal Reserve, which makes its scheduled announcement on interest rates Wednesday. Most analysts expect the Fed to keep its key federal funds rate on hold as it stands on guard against inflation.
Two of America's oldest agricultural businesses would become one as Bunge Ltd. is buying Corn Products International Inc. in a stock deal worth about US$4.4 billion, plus $414 million in assumed debt.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup plans to dismiss about as much as 10 per cent of its investment banking workforce -- 6,500 people. The bank has lost US$15 billion over the past two quarters and is expected to announce more big writeoffs.
The TSX financial sector had another rough session, down 0.9 per cent on top of last week's three per cent slide.
Toronto-Dominion was down 40 cents to $64.65 while Bank of Montreal slid 65 cents to $43.24.
National Bank inched a cent lower to $52.60 after an agreement with Transat A.T. Inc. to carry the travel operator over the hump of $143.5 million of its funds blocked in asset-backed commercial paper. National Bank will provide three-year credit facilities for up to $107.6 million, about 75 per cent of the company's holdings in ABCP. Transat shares improved 14 cents to $22.39.
Royal Bank of Canada has acquired 10 per cent of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC, a highly regarded independent money manager based in Stamford, Conn. Royal Bank shares were down 80 cents at $46.80.
The TSX energy sector headed 1.8 per cent higher as crude prices failed to ease after the Saudi undertaking to boost production by 200,000 barrels a day -- regarded by the market as a minor contribution.
The July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved up $1.03 to US$136.39 a barrel. On the TSX, EnCana Corp. was ahead $1.72 to $92.31 and Suncor Energy gained $1.79 to $63.61.
The gold sector was off 0.4 per cent as bullion pulled back $19.60 to US$884.10. But Goldcorp moved ahead 58 cents to $41.95.
HudBay Minerals Inc. and Skye Resources Inc. have struck a deal to combine in a share-exchange arrangement worth about half a billion dollars. Shareholders of Skye, whose main asset is the Fenix nickel project in Guatemala, are to receive 0.61 of a HudBay common share for each Skye share, and will own about one-fifth of the combined enterprise. HudBay shares declined 50 cents to $14.29 while Skye bounded ahead $1.18 to $8.90.
Enerplus Resources Fund has sold its 15 per cent interest in the Joslyn oilsands lease for about $500 million to Occidental Petroleum Corp. Enerplus had invested $115 million in the northeast Alberta project. Its units gained 88 cents to $47.83.
Com Dev International Ltd. shares rose two cents to $3.39 after it landed an $8.6-million contract to design, build and launch a micro-satellite for the federal government. The deal with the Defence Department and the Canadian Space Agency comes less than a week after the Ontario-based provider of space subsystems announced it planned to build complete small satellites
Bombardier Aerospace announced a sale of four CRJ700 regional jets to an unnamed airline, which has also taken options on four additional planes. Meanwhile, All Nippon Airways is exercising options to buy three Q400 turboprop airliners. Bombardier shares were up 19 cents to $7.60.
Asian stock exchanges showed minor losses while European bourses were marginally positive, after a downturn on most markets last week.
China's Shanghai composite index surrendered another 2.5 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average closed with a decline of 0.6 per cent.
The FTSE 100 was up 28.3 points to 5,649.1, while Germany's DAX index rose 11.27 points to 6,589.71 and the French CAC-40 edged up 13.92 points to 4,523.19.
