Performance in March provided a nice finish to the first quarter of
2002, as all major North American equity indices finished in positive
territory. The benchmark Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index gained 2.8
percent on the month, roughly in line with the 2.9 percent advance of
the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Following the lows set last September, when the TSE touched 6513 and
the Dow Jones touched 8236, performance over the past six months for
just about every index has been strong.
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Smaller capitalized indices continue to outperform in both the Canadian
and U.S. markets.
The TSE 200, which represents the smaller 200 stocks within the TSE
300, gained 4.8 percent while the Russell 2000, the U.S index of small
cap stocks, gained 7.9 percent.
Technology stocks were strong in March, as measured by the Nasdaq,
which gained 6.6 percent. The ML Technology 100 index, an equally
weighted index of the 100 largest market caps in technology, gained
11.6 percent. Table one is an overview of North American Index returns.
Outside North America, the broad Bloomberg 500 index advanced 4.7
percent, led by cyclicals including manufacturing, industrial products,
media and consumer products sectors.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished up 4.1 percent while Hong Kong’s
Hang Seng advanced 5.3 percent.
Equity indices that are highly levered to the overall global economy
continued to rise, namely the Taiwan Weighted index, which gained 8.3
percent, and the Korean Composite Index, which gained 9.2 percent.
Combined with earlier gains, these indices are up 69.6 percent and 86.7
percent respectively over the past six months. Table two provides an
overview of international index returns.
Within the TSE 300, the heavily weighted financial services and oil and
gas sectors led the overall index higher with additional help from
merchandising and consumer products.
Interest sensitive sectors, namely pipelines, which fell two percent,
and utilities, which fell 9.7 percent, were the only negatively
performing sectors in March.
Ian Morrison is a financial consultant with Wood Gundy Private Client
Investments in Calgary. His views do not necessarily reflect those of
CIBC World Markets Inc. or The Western Producer. Morrison can be
reached at 800-332-1407 or by e-mail at ian.morrison@cibc.ca.
