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Toronto stock index closes higher on Nortel strength

TORONTO: Nortel Networks bullied the Toronto Stock Exchange higher again on Wednesday, pushing the main index to its 29th record close when most other stocks languished.

Nortel, which now accounts for about 36 percent of the index, rose to a new high of C$124.50 on the back of a positive upgrades following the release of better than expected second quarter results after market's closed on Tuesday. It finished C$2.35 higher at C$123.10 on volume of 9.6 million.

"All of it is Nortel.Everybody's talking about Nortel. Wow. But there's 299 other stocks out there and the bulk of them are not doing well," said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada Inc.

The Toronto Stock Exchange rose 49.7 points, or 0.45 percent, at 10,916.07 on volume of 128.6 million shares worth C$4.15 billion. But market momentum was negative with decliners beating advancers 620 to 421 with another 317 issues unchanged.

The TSE 300 is now up 29 percent for the year, the same amount it climbed in 1999.

The blue chip S&P/TSE 60 index ended up 5.23 points, or 0.78 percent, at 674.94.

In New York, markets fell as investors were uncertain over the U.S. Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates. In a speech on Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives' Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the economy has been moving toward more balanced growth, but left the door open to another interest-rate hike.

The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 183.49 points, or 1.71 percent, to 10,516.48. It was the blue-chip gauge's lowest close since July 6, when it finished at 10,481.

In the Dow, shares of chipmaker Intel Corp fell 1-7/8 to 139. Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co lost 5-3/16 to 110 while rival International Business Machines Corp slid 1-7/8 to 109-7/8.

Intel's loss weighed on the Nasdaq composite index, which gave up 41.85 points, or 1.04 percent, to 3,987.72. It had been down more than 2 percent earlier in the day.

In Toronto, half of the TSE 300 subindexes finished higher, led by transportation, which gained 4.14 percent and industrial products, home to technologies, which rose 0.89 percent.

Elsewhere in the industrial products sector, fiber-optics company JDS Uniphase rose 90 Canadian cents to C$192.00. JDS Uniphase reported after markets closed that it beat fourth-quarter profit projections by 2 cents, reflecting a 173 percent sales increase over the period.

In transportation, Canadian National Railway climbed C$3.15 to C$45.90. It announced it cut grain freight rate scales to meet an 18 percent reduction in its grain revenues mandated by Ottawa.

Also higher were the financial services, gold, utilities, merchandising and real estate sectors.

On the downside, conglomerates, metals and minerals, pipelines and paper and forest products all fell more than one percent.-Reuters