The finance ministry is very concerned about real or imagined leakages involving taxes in the income trust sector. It should, however, be really concerned about who (if any) leaked and who (if any) benefited from the information about the impending favourable decisions regarding trusts last week.
The decision to cut dividends and income trusts was announced to the public on November 23, 2005 at about 6 p.m. EST, after the markets closed in Toronto. Check out the action in some of the popular income trusts and high-yield dividend stocks that are a play on a potential income-trust conversion:
YLO.UN:
Nov. 22 – Closed at $14.09 on a volume of 456,600 shares.
Nov. 23 – Closed at $15.02 on a volume of 1.51 million shares.
Price up 6.6%. Volume up 3.3x.
CIX:
Nov. 22 – Closed at $22.45 on a volume of 665,800 shares.
Nov. 23 – Closed at $23.38 on a volume of 4.3 million shares.
Price up 4.1%. Volume up 6.4x.
BCE:
Nov. 22 – Closed at $26.60 on a volume of 1.7 million shares.
Nov. 23 – Closed at $27.90 on a volume of 4.8 million shares.
Price up 4.8%. Volume up 2.8x.
AGF.NV:
Nov. 22 – Closed at $20.79 on a volume of 92,900 shares.
Nov. 23 – Closed at $21.60 on a volume of 323,500 shares.
Price up 3.8%. Volume up 3.5x.
Suspicious? You bet. But, I for one, am not holding my breath for any investigation by securities regulators.
Note: Don’t forget your entry into the One Year Giveaway. Hurry! Only 3 days left!
