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TSX recovers from intraday low, Research in Motion leads the way

Published: 15:50 03 Aug 2011 EDT

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Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) opened firmly in the red this morning, and remained down, but managed to recover from intra-day lows heading into the last hour of trading. By 3:50pm, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was ahead a 0.05%, or 6 points to 12,716, but the smaller S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 1% to 1958.

Canadian markets were weighted down most of the day by a combination of factors, including ongoing concerns about the health of the US economic recovery and sovereign debt levels in Italy and Spain.

The TSX and TSX-V were also undermined by a drop in crude oil prices, but a rally in precious metal producers helped to temper losses in Toronto.  

Of the eight main sectors on the TSX, only three look set to finish in negative territory today. Information technology was the best performing sector, largely down to a strong rise in Research In Motion. 

Shares in Research In Motion (TSE: RIM, NASDAQ:RIMM) rallied more than 5% after it announced the undertaking of the largest product launch in its history, as it plans to unveil five smartphone devices later this month.   Waterloo-based RIM, which will launch the devices with 225 carriers and distribution partners, said it is rolling out two new BlackBerry Bold models and three BlackBerry Torch models. The devices are the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 RIM’s thinnest smartphones to date and each offering large keyboards and touch display, the BlackBerry Torch 9810 and 9800 which has a touch display and slide-out keyboard, as well as the BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860 which has a 3.7 inch touch screen display. 

Sino-Forest (TSE:TRE) headed in the opposite direction today, giving up 7%.  Shares in the company, which hit a 52 week high of $25.85 and 52 week low of $1.99 just a few weeks ago have been in recovery mode, largely thanks to two large institutions taking stakes in the stock after it was hit by accusations from US firm Muddy Waters about the size of its forestry holdings in China.  

Despite the rise in gold and silver prices today, the metals & mining sector still managed to pull back, slipping 0.15%.  Gold producers in particular are the subject of much debate at the moment, with one camp arguing they are overdue a re-rating to reflect higher metals prices, and a second camp fixated on rising input costs in the industry which is putting upward pressure on capital development costs of new mines.

Regardless of which camp you sit in, gold producers enjoyed a second day of gains, thanks to another record spot gold price.  Gold hit 1669 today, its fifth record day in eight.

Mid-tier gold plays continued to benefit the most, however, including Royal Gold (TSE:RGL), which added 3.18%, and Yukon-Nevada Gold (TSE:YNG) which jumped nearly 10%.  Other notable gainers in the gold sector included Treasury Metals (TSE:TML), which tacked on 10%.

Sprott Inc (TSE:SII) which controls a number of commodity focused investment funds, moved 7% high in response to the higher metal prices and underlying movement in gold and silver explorers and producers.


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