Canadian stocks advanced for a third day, led by producers of base and precious metals and financial companies, after measures of manufacturing growth showed expansion in the U.S., China and Europe.
Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, gained 2.9 percent as copper futures climbed to records in London and New York. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Canada’s largest drugmaker, soared 5.8 percent after agreeing to buy PharmaSwiss SA. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-biggest lender by assets, rose 1.5 percent after the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index for the U.S. rose to its highest level since 2004.
The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 160.63 points, or 1.2 percent, to 13,712.62, the highest since August 2008.
“Things are improving around the world.” said Greg Eckel, who helps oversee about C$1 billion ($1 billion) as a money manager at Morgan Meighen & Associates Ltd. in Toronto. “The U.S. data still takes the lion’s share of our attention. It’s further indication that things are improving, and obviously, with our resource-based markets, we need that to happen for us to be perceived in a favorable light.”
The S&P/TSX rose 0.8 percent in January for its seventh- straight monthly gain. The stock benchmark’s energy companies surged 4 percent in the last two days of the month as oil jumped 7.7 percent on the unrest in Egypt.
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