Canadian stock market rallies over Valeant acquisition deal

Canada's main stock index Tuesday closed in the positive territory, boosted by the acquisition plan of the country's biggest drug maker. The benchmark Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index moved up 62.29 points or 0.43 percent to settle at 14,555.97 points. The health care sector soared 3.07 percent, pushing up the market sentiment as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., the Canadian pharmaceutical and medical giant, announced to investors the company and its partnership investor Bill Ackman will offer to buy Botox maker Allergan, proposing a cash-and-stock deal that could be worth about 45 billion U.S. dollars. Analysts said this deal could make Valeant a top five global pharmaceutical company. Valeant jumped 7.65 percent to 149.38 Canadian dollars (about 135.46 U.S. dollars) in its stock price. The industrial sector advanced 1.46 percent as Statistics Canada said on Tuesday that the wholesale sales in industrial sectors rose for a second consecutive month in February, up 1.1 percent to 50.7 billion Canadian dollars, with motor vehicle and parts leading the increase among the subsectors. Canadian National Railway Company moved up 0.94 percent to 63.57 Canadian dollars while Canada's biggest aircraft maker Bombardier gained 0.5 percent to close at 4.03 Canadian dollars. The telecom sector lost 1.12 percent as Canada's largest wireless provider Rogers Communications Inc. slipped 3.39 percent to 42.78 Canadian dollars, after the company reported that its net income in the first quarter dropped 13 percent. On the economic front, the Canadian dollar was trading at 0. 9068 U.S dollar on Tuesday, compared with 0.9075 U.S. dollar on the last trading day.