TSX end higher for fourth straight session
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Updated: November 18, 2009 2:02 PM
By Jennifer Kwan
TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index ended slightly higher on Wednesday, but was off its highest levels of the day as investors took a break after early buying sent the resource-heavy index to a 13-month high.
Influential names on the upside included Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, up 3 percent at C$120.00, and Toronto-Dominion Bank, which rose 1.2 percent to C$68.29.
While the market managed to eke out gains at the session's close, it hovered around the break-even level for most of the afternoon.
"The market has done very well here in the past couple of weeks," said Levente Mady, market strategist at Union Securities in Vancouver.
"Certainly, you can make the argument that it is a little overdone and due for a pause. The fact that we're going sideways as opposed to pulling back decisively certainly is constructive market action."
The S&P/TSX composite index finished the day up 22.69 points, or 0.2 percent, at 11,652.69. Earlier, it rose 72 points to 11,702.24, which marked its highest level since October 2008.
Energy and gold-mining stocks, which helped power the early rally, were among the later drags on the index as many investors ignored higher oil and gold prices.
Influential names on the downside included Barrick Gold, which dropped 2.9 percent to C$46.10, and Suncor Energy, down 0.8 percent at C$38.56.
Also weighing on the market was Research In Motion, which dropped 2 percent to C$63.25. BMO Capital Markets downgraded the BlackBerry maker to "market perform" from "outperform," citing concerns about its 2011 earnings.
($1=$1.05 Canadian)
(Reporting by Jennifer Kwan; editing by Rob Wilson)
