By Eric Lam
Bloomberg News
Canadian stocks have rallied to a record amid a resurgence in energy producers and gold mining shares, delivering investors the second-best returns among the world’s largest markets this year.
About $1.5 trillion in value has been restored to Canadian equities since March 2009, with the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gaining 100%. The S&P/TSX Composite closed Wednesday at 15,109.25, topping the previous high of 15,073.13 reached six years earlier on June 18, 2008. It is up 11% this year, trailing only the 19% advance in India’s S&P BSE Sensex among the world’s 10 biggest markets.
The Canadian government’s June 17 approval of Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline to British Columbia’s Pacific coast will potentially open up new markets for oil producers. As well, sectarian violence in Iraq, escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia and the harshest North American winter in three decades have fuelled concerns about energy supply and boosted oil and natural gas prices this year.