Thaindian News

By Gurmukh Singh
Toronto, Jan 7 (IANS) Companies raised a record $60 billion on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) last year despite the global downturn.

The third biggest stock exchange in North America, the Toronto Stock Exchange is also the world’s biggest energy market where more than 400 global oil and gas companies are traded.

The stock exchange raised $60.0 billion, surpassing the previous record of $47.6 billion set in 2007. The TSX executed trading volume of 118.5 billion, again exceeding the record of 109.2 billion set in 2008.

With 191.3 million transactions in 2009, the stock exchange also surpassed the previous record of 182.9 million trades set in 2008.

Announcing the total business executed at the stock exchange in 2009, Kevan Cowan, president of TSX Markets, said here Wednesday that the year “2009 saw Toronto Stock Exchange reach a number of new trading and financing records.

“As we look to 2010, we are optimistic that the signs of economic recovery seen at the end of 2009 will continue and that organizations will turn to our markets to raise the capital required to fuel their growth.

“Our focus is to provide a strong, central, neutral and highly-liquid marketplace to facilitate access to capital for companies of all sizes as they work to achieve their full potential.”

The stock market maintained its upward momentum into the New Year Wednesday, with higher oil and metal prices pushing up the composite index to 11,944.54.

Since sinking to almost 7600 points in March 2008, the market has rebounded more than 35 percent. But it still remains far away from the historic 15,000-point mark the TSX crossed in June 2008.

The Canadian dollar - called loonie - also continued to make gains against the US dollar, rising to 96.85 cents US Wednesday.

The loonie is set to reach parity with the US dollar any time this year as the greenback continues to slide on US debt and fears of inflation.