June 18, 2007

Canada Energy Stocks May Fall; Metals Shares May Gain With Gold

Canadian energy stocks including EnCana Corp. may decline along with crude oil prices, which retreated today from a nine-month high.

Declines in the broader market may be limited as raw-materials producers including Goldcorp Inc. advance on higher bullion and copper prices.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index added 135.42, or 1 percent, to 14,137.41 on June 15 in Toronto. The benchmark had a weekly gain of 2.5 percent, the best since a 3.2 percent rise in the week ended March 23. It's less than 0.1 percent below its record close of 14,146.74 reached June 4.

Crude oil fell from a nine-month high in New York on expectations that violence in Nigeria will subside, allowing the country to restore some lost production. Oil for July delivery dropped 40 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $67.60 a barrel in 8:39 a.m. electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

EnCana may drop 91 cents to C$69.30, based on bids already submitted on the Toronto Stock Exchange. EnCana, Canada's biggest natural-gas producer and the country's biggest energy company by market value, climbed to a record on June 15.

Petro-Canada, the nation's third-biggest oil and gas producer, may decline 12 cents to C$56.04, bids indicated

Gold rose for a fourth day in London on speculation declines in the dollar will spur demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation.

Copper advanced for a fourth consecutive session in London as stockpiles fell and the prospect of strikes at Latin American mines led to speculation that supplies will be disrupted. Lead rose to a record.

Bullion Miner

Goldcorp, Canada's second-largest bullion miner, may gain 24 cents to C$26.70, bids incicated.

Agrium Inc. may climb 25 cents to C$45.45. North America's largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer said second-quarter profit may exceed $1.55 a share. The profit projection had been $1.45 to $1.55 a share, Calgary-based Agrium said in a statement distributed by CCNMatthews. Earnings are expected to be ``at or slightly above'' the upper end of the range, the company said.

Takeover speculation may also support some stocks. ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. may rise 18 cents to C$26.25, bids indicated. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. may be the leading bidder for a majority stake in Air Canada's aircraft maintenance unit, which is being sold by ACE Aviation Holdings, the airline's holding company, the Globe and Mail reported. KKR would top a bid by a unit of Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the newspaper said. A buyer may be named as soon as today, the Globe and Mail said. The operations may be worth as much as C$1 billion ($940 million), the newspaper said.

Other bidders included Toronto-based Onex Corp. (OCX CN), the Globe and Mail said. Unidentified representatives of KKR and ACE declined to comment, the newspaper said.

U.S. Stock-Index Futures

U.S. stock-index futures rose on takeover speculation. Low borrowing costs helped fuel more than $1.2 trillion in acquisitions involving U.S. companies this year.

S&P 500 futures expiring in September added 4.20 to 1551.90 at 8:52 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 40 to 13,792. Nasdaq-100 Index futures advanced 3 to 1972.75.

The following shares may have unusual price changes. Prices are from the close on June 15.

Alcan Inc. (AL CN): Shares of Alcoa Inc. (AA US), which has made a $27.7 billion hostile takeover offer for Alcan, rose in Frankfurt after the London-based Times said BHP Billiton Ltd. may consider a $40 billion takeover of the U.S. aluminum maker.

BHP is in the early stages of considering an offer and hasn't made an approach to Alcoa, the newspaper reported without saying where it got the information. BHP doesn't comment on rumor or speculation, Melbourne-based company spokeswoman Samantha Evans said. Alcan shares added 53 cents, or 0.6 percent, to C$88.69.

Legacy Hotels REIT (LGY-U CN): The owner of 25 hotels in the U.S. and Canada may have received final bids from two bidders, Gazit-Globe Ltd., an Israeli property fund, and the Canadian pension fund Westmont Hospitality Group, the Financial Times reported June 15, citing two persons claiming knowledge of the situation. The Israeli fund may be Gazit-Globe, according to an industry banker not involved in the transaction, the FT said.

Separately, Legacy Hotels was cut to ``hold'' from ``buy'' by Sam Damiani at TD Newcrest. The analyst expects the shares to fall to C$14 within 12 months. The shares gained 53 cents, or 3.8 percent, to C$14.58.

Source : www.bloomberg.com

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