Canadian stocks register gains on busy profit-reporting day

Canadian stocks seesawed on Thursday and finally made some gains. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 32.00 points, or 0.27 percent, at 11,728.64.

Seven out of 12 sectors on the Toronto Stock Exchange registered some losses but the losses and gains of all the sectors were less than one percent.

Gold for September delivery added 0.07 percent to 1,170.50 U.S. dollars an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Crude oil for September delivery lost 0.25 percent to 78.25 U.S. dollars a barrel. Raw materials account for about half of Canada's export revenue. Oil is Canada's largest export.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest bullion producer, gained 0.91 percent after raising its dividend 20 percent as it reported a record high second-quarter profit.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada's largest oil and gas producer, increased 2.63 percent after reporting a record high second- quarter profit since 2005.

Manulife Financial Corp. jumped 4.27 percent after reports saying that upcoming changes to capital rules for life insurers will only apply to products sold in the future.

Thursday was a busy day for Canadian companies reporting second- quarter results.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world's largest fertilizer producer, surged 4.61 percent after reporting a more- than-doubled second-quarter profit. The company also raised its profit outlook for the year.

Transportation company TransForce Inc. rallied 7.72 percent after saying that its net income fell by five percent while revenue gained nine percent.

Information services provider Thomson Reuters Corp. lost 1.86 percent after saying that its profit dropped eight percent while revenue slipped two percent.

Statistics Canada said on Thursday that Canada's Industrial Product Price Index fell 0.9 percent in June, led by petroleum and metals. Meanwhile, the Raw Material Price Index eased 0.3 percent, mainly due to lower prices of non-ferrous metals.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar appreciated against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday.

One U.S. dollar was buying 1.0359 Canadian dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) on Thursday, compared with one U.S. dollar buying 1.0382 Canadian dollars on Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua