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Frank Stronach may have needed more than one Brinks truck to collect his annual pay at Magna International Inc. last year.

The flamboyant, hard-driving chair of the Aurora-based auto-parts powerhouse received a stunning $70.6 million in total compensation during 2007, according to the company’s annual information circular.

Excluding one-time windfall payouts to a few departing executives at other major companies earlier this decade, Stronach smashed his own Canadian record of $58.1 million in 2002.

Last year’s pay more than doubled his compensation of $31.3 million in 2006 at Magna, which he founded and built into the world’s fourth- biggest independent auto-parts maker.

The circular to shareholders shows Stronach’s compensation includes $40.6 million for "business development, consulting and other services," $27.3 million in exercising stock rights, $2.47 million in other consulting fees, plus $215,000 in base salary.

The exercise of stock rights generated most of the huge jump in compensation last year from 2006.

"Mr. Stronach’s historical compensation reflects his special position as Magna’s founder and architect of Magna’s unique, entrepreneurial corporate culture," the company’s corporate governance and compensation committee said in its report.

In justifying Stronach’s 2007 compensation, the committee cited the strategic value of his private company’s consulting services; leadership in developing positive union relationships in North America; assistance in expanding Magna’s business in Russia and help in product innovation including "green" concepts.

Stronach, 74, holds less than 2 per cent of Magna’s equity but controls the company through multiple voting shares.

Some institutional shareholders have criticized Magna for years for the amount of compensation it pays Stronach because, they say, there is little evidence to support it.

His compensation regularly surpasses the annual pay of the top three CEOs of the North American-based Big Three automakers.

Other Canadian executives have realized big one-time payouts when they left firms.

John Roth, former chief executive of Nortel Networks Corp., collected $145.4 million in 2000, primarily through exercising $135.2 million in stock options payday advance.

David O’Brien, former CEO of conglomerate Canadian Pacific Ltd., received $83.1 million in salary, severance, pension payments and cashing in stock options after breaking up the company in 2001.

Stronach could not be reached for comment yesterday, but in the past he has said he deserves more than professional athletes and movie stars because of his company’s strong role in boosting the economy and creating jobs.

Magna’s profits surged more than 25 per cent to $663 million (U.S.) last year from 2006. However the company’s class A shares fell 11 per cent in the same period.

Meanwhile, the pay of Magna’s co-chief executive officers doubled last year. Compensation for Donald Walker jumped to $7.23 million including a bonus of $6.6 million, and pay for Siegfried (Ziggy) Wolf shot up to $7.45 million including a $7.1 million bonus. Both executives also collected more than 32,600 restricted share units.

Vice-chair Belinda Stronach, who quit federal politics to return to Magna, received $3.1 million in compensation, with most it in the form of bonus pay.

Former president Mark Hogan, who left Magna at the end of 2007, collected about $7.6 million. He also gained restricted share units with a current value of more than $11 million and a "retiring allowance" of about $3.2 million for 3 1/2 years at Magna.

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Magna International Inc. founder and chairman Frank Stronach enjoyed a 45 per cent pay increase last year as his total compensation package swelled to US$40.3 million, from $27.7 million in 2006.

Daughter Belinda, who rejoined the auto parts maker last May as executive vice-chair, was paid just over US$4.3 million, augmenting her salary of C$155,000 as a member of Parliament, which she has said she donates to charity.

Frank Stronach's pay – an annual object of fascination and consistently among the richest in Canada – included a base salary of $200,000, which has been unchanged for years, according to the proxy circular from Magna, which keeps its accounts in U.S. dollars.

He received $2.3 million, also unchanged, from a Magna subsidiary in Austria, while his "other compensation" grew to $37.8 million from $25.2 million, representing fees from Magna and other subsidiaries "for business development and other services."

For Belinda Stronach, 41, there was a base salary of $110,500, plus a bonus of $2.8 million in cash and restricted share units valued at $1.4 million.

Co-CEOs Donald Walker and Siegfried Wolf each received more than $9 million in total compensation cashadvance.com. Mark Hogan, who left as president at year-end after about 2 1/2 years with Magna, got $4 million plus a $3-million "retiring allowance."

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The $17-billion takeover of Reuters Group PLC by electronic publisher Thomson Corp. was approved overwhelmingly today by shareholders of both companies, which together will form one of the world's largest information operations.

David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Corp. (TSX: TOC) and grandson of founder Roy Thomson, told a shareholder meeting that this "is a remarkable beginning for both corporations."

He was commenting after about 99 per cent of Thomson shareholders at the Toronto meeting had voted to approve the deal, the biggest in the history of the Canadian-headquartered company which began in northern Ontario during the Depression as a radio and newspaper business.

Reuters, whose news agency origins date to 1851, said its shareholders approved the transaction by 92.6 per cent at a meeting in London.

Richard Harrington, president and CEO of Thomson, said the acquisition of Reuters "gives us a global footprint that we've never really had as our own company."

Harrington plans to retire after the two corporations are combined.

Reuters CEO Tom Glocer will be chief executive of the combined Thomson Reuters, which will have more than one-third of the world market for financial data, in competition against Bloomberg LP.

The Thomson family, which owns 70 per cent of Thomson Corp., will remain in control with 53 per cent of the combined company.

About 200 people attended the Toronto meeting at Roy Thomson Hall, named after the company's founder, who became Lord Thomson of Fleet after buying the Times of London.

Most of his papers were in small Canadian towns and cities, starting with the Timmins Press, which he bought in 1934. Thomson Corp. eventually operated more than 200 papers in North America and the U.K., but it has shed those interests in favour of selling high-value specialist information to financiers, accountants, lawyers, doctors and other professionals, largely electronically.

David Thomson, who will chair the combined company, told shareholders that "we are dedicated to building the finest information group in the world."

The vote was a formality as the Thomson family's Woodbridge Co quick payday loan. had committed its 70 per cent stake to the transaction, expected to close April 17.

Combining Thomson's strength in North America with the presence of Reuters in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, "Thomson Reuters will create a business with a global brand presence that will allow opportunities to grow faster than either Thomson or Reuters could realize," David Thomson said.

Despite the turmoil shaking financial markets, "I'm fully confident we can create and build value in this business," he added.

Harrington said it would take about three years for the two companies to combine and operate as one company.

At the end of the three years, he said, Thomson Reuters expects to gain about US$500 million of annual savings on resources such as technology, product development and corporate services.

The enterprise will have a dual listing as Thomson Reuters Corp. in North America and Thomson Reuters PLC in Britain.

The combination "is going to be terrific for shareholders," predicted Felix Narhi, an equity analyst with Odlum Brown in Vancouver.

"The combined entity is very well positioned, particularly in financial, going essentially from an oligopoly to a duopoly," Narhi said.

He rates Thomson a "buy" and applies the same assessment to Thomson Reuters, although "we have reduced our target price to $49 per share from $51 due to the more challenging near-term business climate and rumours of layoffs in the financial sector."

Thomson shares were down 66 cents or 1.8 per cent at C$35.40 on the TSX, with a 52-week range between $50.00 and $31.67.

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LOS ANGELES–Ginny-Marie Case can’t forget the night she was jarred from her sleep by massive explosions set off by crews filming last summer’s blockbuster movie Transformers.

It was the latest cinematic nightmare that led Case and other residents streaming downtown as part of a population boom to push for tougher limits on filming in the nation’s most popular location for movies, TV shows and car commercials.

"It was the loudest explosion I ever heard," Case said. "We had no clue: Was this part of filming? Was this some terrorist thing?"

For decades, filmmakers have depended on downtown rail yards, brownstones and beaux arts facades to depict urban anywhere. In the process, they have grown used to operating with few restrictions in the long-neglected urban core.

"I do love movies, but sometimes it gets annoying. This is not a Hollywood lot," Oscar Linares, 32, said as he walked his dog past a CSI: NY set where Gary Sinise stood before cameras in a bulletproof vest.

The conflict pits the downtown resurgence against the push to stop the "runaway production" that occurs when filmmakers leave L.A. to take advantage of hefty tax breaks and other advantages offered by cities from Toronto to New Orleans.

Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said tighter downtown restrictions could send production companies packing.

"Hopefully they can come up with something the makes everybody happy, but that could be very difficult," he said. "We really run a risk."

The entertainment industry generates $58 billion (U.S.) a year for the Los Angeles-area economy – a figure that’s steadily increased in recent years as losses from runaway production levelled off and cable TV production increased.

Hollywood, however, is currently reeling from the estimated $2.5 billion toll taken by the recent writers’ strike.

City councillor Jan Perry, whose district includes most of downtown, is watching closely as neighbourhood activists and studio representatives work to draft guidelines limiting overnight filming and curtailing street closures.

"People live here now, so at some point you’ve got to shut off the lights and let people go to sleep," Perry said. The City Council will have the final say on the rules.

Downtown has seen a lot of action over the years.

In Transformers, giant robots wrestle on the streets, leaving a path of destruction created with a mix of actual footage and computer effects.

Action flicks such as Die Hard 2 used City Hall as a backdrop, while the Art Deco Union Station was featured in the classic science fiction thriller Blade Runner.

These days, downtown plays itself on the Fox series 24 and stands in for New York and Las Vegas in two of the three hit CSI shows on CBS.

It’s also a hot spot for car commercials featuring the glass-and-steel towers of Figueroa Boulevard.

In all, there are an average of 23 downtown location shoots each day, according to FilmL.A freecreditscore. Inc., the non-profit agency that handles filming permits for the city.

"We couldn’t do our show without downtown Los Angeles," said Peter Lenkov, executive producer of CSI: NY. "There’s a grittiness to downtown you can’t find anywhere else in Los Angeles. … Nowhere else do you get the feeling of 47th Street or Times Square."

Until the late 1990s, film crews could operate with nearly complete freedom downtown, which became a virtual ghost town overnight after government and office workers fled for the suburbs.

But the number of residents in the area has grown from about 18,700 before 1999 to more than 34,000 today, according to the Central City Association.

Shopkeepers and residents tolerated street closures, floodlights and other inconveniences until 2006, when a cluster of disturbances – including the Transformers explosions – pushed many over the edge.

Bert Green decided he’d had enough when film crews monopolized parking spots for months near the galleries where he organizes a downtown art walk.

After his complaints were ignored by city officials and FilmL.A. staff, he met with other fed-up merchants and residents.

"Crews were coming into the neighbourhood and shutting streets down, or taking over whole blocks," he said. "There has to be some accountability."

Some limits exist already, but residents complain they are routinely ignored because they are not formal city ordinances.

One proposal would bar filming near homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. without written permission from residents. It also cuts curb space crews can occupy and puts limits on the use of lights.

Meanwhile, to ease conflicts, FilmL.A. has hired a community liaison to field complaints.

"The locations are like my field," said CSI: NY location manager Timothy Hillman. "If I burn out a location – if a location says, ‘I don’t want you back’ – it’s like I’m a farmer throwing salt on his fields.”

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The strike at American Axle and Manufacturing in the U.S. is hitting more big auto-parts suppliers here.

Kitchener Frame, a subsidiary of Martinrea International Inc., has temporarily laid off about 550 workers – including more than 400 in the past week – because of the ripple effect of the American Axle walkout in the United States.

The strike by 3,650 American Axle workers in Michigan and western New York, now in its fourth week, has shut down or partially closed about 30 General Motors operations, including its truck plant in Oshawa.

It has idled thousands of GM workers, but also negated demand for auto parts from scores of suppliers and triggered more layoffs.

Kitchener Frame produces frames for GM’s plant in Moraine, Ohio, which makes sport-utility vehicles. That assembly plant relies on axle components from American.

Mike Devine, president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 1451, confirmed the latest layoffs at Kitchener Frame and added that regional suppliers such as Lear Corp. have also reduced output and staff because of the strike.

Other suppliers in the Oshawa area have reduced output and laid off staff because of the stoppage at the truck plant.

Devine said about 150 workers will remain on the job at Kitchener Frame because they make undercarriage components for the Cadillac model at an assembly plant in Lansing, Mich., and for sport-utilities at the CAMI Automotive operation in Ingersoll, Ont.

American Axle workers walked off the job on Feb free credit report .com. 26 when company negotiators proposed steep wage cuts so it could become more competitive with rival firms.

GM indicated the auto giant has enough inventory for its models at the idled assembly plants for another month before dealers face shortages.

Kitchener Frame could close by the spring of 2010 because it has no contract beyond that date to produce frames for the GM TrailBlazer and Envoy sport-utes in Ingersoll.

Meanwhile, American Axle has moved some parts production for Chrysler LLC from the U.S. to Mexico. A Chrysler spokesperson said plants in Newark, Del., and Saltillo, Mexico will continue production indefinitely because American Axle moved the work to its Mexican operations.

The strike has not forced the closing of any operations of Chrysler, American Axle’s second-biggest customer behind GM.

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EDMONTON–The Brick Group Income Fund has reported its best-ever fourth-quarter net earnings of $22.6 million, up 54.5 per cent over the holiday quarter of 2006.

The furniture retailer said Wednesday fourth-quarter consolidated revenue was $447 million, including $37.9 million of franchise sales, up 8.8 per cent from $410.8 million a year earlier. Same-store sales growth was 6.2 per cent.

The retail segment produced earnings of $14.7 million, up 75 per cent, while the Brick's financial services generated $7.9 million in profit, up 26.5 per cent.

Distributable cash per unit was reported at 47 cents, up from 40 cents in the fourth quarter of 2006, and the payout ratio for the quarter was 63.5 per cent, as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 23.9 per cent to $27.9 million payday loans.

Full-year revenue was $1.57 billion, up 10.3 per cent from $1.42 billion in 2006, on strong sales in both eastern and western Canada, "driven by a strong promotional calendar and more effective execution of delivering our written sales," the Brick said.

"For the year ahead, we believe we are well positioned to succeed against the economic and competitive challenges and will continue to drive the benefits of our prior-year key strategic initiatives," stated CEO Kim Yost.

The Brick Group said it has secured commitments from its existing lenders to refinance its operating credit facilities of $100 million for three years.

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WASHINGTON–The Federal Reserve is primed to aggressively cut a key interest rate even lower on Tuesday, racing to contain spreading financial fires that threaten an economic meltdown.

President Bush declared "we're in challenging times" and huddled Monday with top economic officials – including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. On Wall Street investors were still skittish. The Dow Jones industrials, down sharply in early trading, bounced between positive and negative territory through the afternoon.

With the quick collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns, fears are mounting about whether other financial companies may fall. Many believe the country has already sunk into recession and all the problems – if not contained – will deepen and prolong the pain.

"The Fed is on high alert – something you don't see but once every quarter century; may be, in this case, since the Great Depression. This is a very unusual period," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

That's because the Fed is having to fight multiple battles at the same time: a housing collapse, a severe credit crunch and Wall Street turmoil that threatens the stability of the entire U.S. financial system. All those problems feed on each other, creating a vicious cycle that can be hard for the Fed and other Washington policymakers to break. The weight of those troubles is like a millstone on the ailing economy.

"Now the issue is fighting the deeper recession," said Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight. "It has kind of moved to another level. The fires are spreading," he said.

To limit the damage, Bernanke and his colleagues may ratchet down a key interest rate, now at 3 percent, by as much as a full percentage point, to 2 percent, which would put that rate at the lowest it has been since late 2004. Because that rate affects a wide range of rates charged to millions of consumer and businesses, it is the Fed's most potent tool for reviving economic activity.

If that happens, commercial banks' prime lending rate on certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans would drop by a corresponding amount to 5 percent, from 6 percent currently. The Fed's goal, since embarking on a rate-cutting campaign in September, is to induce people and businesses to boost spending, thus bolstering the economy.

However, with the panicky mind-set that has swept over investors since last summer, credit – even at a lower cost – has become harder and harder to get as financial institutions and others became increasingly wary of business prospects. So the Fed took a series of other unconventional maneuvers to deal with those problems and to restore confidence.

The Fed, in a bold action on Sunday, agreed for the first time to let big investment houses get emergency loans directly from the central bank. The new lending facility – similar to one that's been available to commercial banks for years – started Monday and will continue for at least six months. It marked the broadest use of the Fed's lending authority since the 1930s.

Also Sunday, the Fed approved a $30 billion credit line to engineer the takeover of Bear Stearns.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was critical. "The Federal Reserve's latest actions appear to shift large risks to taxpayers, who may find themselves on the hook for billions in worthless securities.''

Democrats accused Bush of not doing enough to relieve the situation.

"Now we are in the soup and we better get ourselves out of it before the consequences get drastic," Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters payday loan cash advance loan. Barack Obama said: “History will not judge President Bush kindly for his failure to act in a way that could've prevented or alleviated this economic crisis.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is advocating extending unemployment benefits and other relief measures, said “more must be done to begin to reverse the economic mismanagement of the past seven years.''

The new lending facility – described as a cousin to the Fed's emergency lending "discount window" for banks – is geared to give financially-squeezed major investment houses a source of short-term cash on a regular basis.

That's important because those big investment houses have key roles in the financial system. If one fails or is having difficulty, it could put the whole financial system in jeopardy. These big firms have complex relationships with many players in the system, including hedge funds, commercial banks and others.

A range of collateral – including investment-grade mortgage backed securities – will be accepted to back the overnight loans. The Fed also on Sunday lowered its emergency lending rate to banks – and now to big investment houses – by a quarter-point to 3.25 percent.

"These steps will provide financial institutions with greater assurance of access to funds," Bernanke told reporters in a conference call Sunday evening. Bernanke, a scholar of the Great Depression, has been stretching for innovative ways to deal with the credit and financial crises.

The Fed has the power "in unusual and exigent circumstances'' to expand emergency lending to other types of companies and even to individuals if they are unable to secure "adequate credit" from other banking institutions. Thus, economists said there's the possibility that – if current relief maneuvers weren't sufficient – the Fed could extend emergency credit to a wider variety of recipients.

The Fed acted on Sunday just after JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to buy rival Bear Stearns Cos. for $236.2 million in a deal that represents a stunning collapse for one of the world's largest and most venerable investment houses. Just on Friday the Fed had raced to provide emergency financing to cash-strapped Bear Stearns through JPMorgan. Days earlier the Fed announced a set of other unconventional steps to thaw out a credit market in danger of freezing shut.

The flurry of unconventional steps may risk putting the public into a more skittish frame of mind, some said.

"It all kind of sends a conflicting message – making people more nervous," said Bethune. "Why is the Fed every week coming out with another major injection of liquidity or a bailout? What are they doing in Washington?''

In communicating with Wall Street and Main Street, sometimes fewer public utterances by Fed officials may be prudent during turbulent times. "Some talk is best left with your wife over a glass of wine in the evening," Bethune said. "Talking publicly sometimes is not the way to go."

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Liberal finance critic John McCallum is urging other members of the House of Commons finance committee to heed the request of a B.C. couple and hold hearings on why non-bank asset-backed commercial paper was sold to Canadians.

Key opposition members confirmed yesterday they would support his request and urge their peers to do the same when meetings resume in two weeks.

McCallum’s notice of motion asks the committee to "hold at least 12 hours of hearings" on the asset-backed-credit crisis, including testimony from "severely affected Canadians, representatives from the real estate sector and others."

The hearings should determine "whether federal regulators and other stakeholders could have done a better job in anticipating the crisis and/or reducing its costs; and what action the federal government, federal regulators and other stakeholders are taking so as to reduce the likelihood of experiencing a similar crisis in the future," McCallum wrote.

Committee members are expected to vote on the proposal at their next sitting on March 31.

McCallum’s motion follows a letter from Mike and Wynne Miles of Victoria this week, beseeching members to hold hearings.

"It gives us some hope," Wynne Miles said in an interview. "We very much want to have an opportunity to explain to people, especially government officials, how this freeze of our retirement savings has affected our life."

She said hearings could give the government "some feeling of the emotional and financial stress this puts on us."

The Mileses claim to be among 1,400 ordinary investors with savings entangled in the frozen notes bad credit payday loan.

Wynne Miles also expressed concern the committee in charge of the Montreal Accord does not represent the interests of ordinary investors. The committee, led by Bay Street lawyer Purdy Crawford, is attempting to convert short-term debt into longer-term notes. Miles said ordinary folks can’t wait seven to 10 years for their money. Crawford has previously said those who reject the deal would be "on their own."

MPs, however, are increasingly concerned about the plight of ordinary investors, Conservative Ted Menzies said. "I think we should have a serious look at this."

Those sentiments were echoed by the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair. "These people, a lot of them are losing everything. And so we’re going to try to get to the bottom of it," he said. "A lot of the individuals, they didn’t even know their (money) was being put into these vehicles."

Meanwhile, the Crawford committee plans to file an application in Ontario Superior Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act on Monday. It wants the court to call a meeting of note-holders to vote on its plan to restructure 20 of the affected trusts, involving some $32 billion of notes.

"Given the progress we have made in resolving the outstanding issues, and the good relations with all stakeholders, we … are confident we will be able to submit a plan for a comprehensive and simultaneous restructuring of all affected ABCP that will be of benefit to all noteholders," Crawford said yesterday.

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TEMISCAMING, Que. – Tembec Inc. says it will shut down its Bearn, Que., sawmill for three months at end of March due to lack of reasonably priced logs and a depressed lumber market.

About 150 employees will be affected by the move, the company said Thursday.

"This shutdown is a reflection of the severe decline in overall market conditions, driven primarily by the dramatic fall in the number of housing starts in the United States and the related impact on lumber pricing," said Dennis Rounsville, president of Tembec's forest products group faxless payday loan.

"The continued high value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar further aggravates these conditions."

Tembec (TSX: TMB) is an integrated forest products company with operations in North America and France and about 8,000 employees.

In Thursday trading on the TSX, Tembec shares fell seven cents to $3.40.

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The Toronto stock market was little changed late Wednesday morning, weighed down by falling energy and gold stocks.

But the overall tone was positive and New York markets moved sharply higher, adding to the large gains racked up Tuesday on the latest concerted move by global central banks to ease credit markets.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index gained 16.98 points to 12,361.51.

The market jumped 339 points or 2.6 per cent Tuesday after the Bank of Canada and other central banks injected billions of dollars into markets.

The U.S. Federal Reserve led the effort, committing US$200 billion to financial institutions for a term of 28 days, rather than overnight.

"I think the objective of the central banks right now is really just to keep putting band-aids and patches on the system," said Julie Brough, vice president of wealth management at Morgan, Meighen and Associates.

"Because what the system needs is time and to make sure that things hold together reasonably well to give things the time to work their way through."

The TSX Venture Exchange added 5.52 points to 2,672.89.

The Canadian dollar moved up 0.23 cent to 100.9 cents US.

New York's Dow Jones industrials moved 130.67 points higher to 12,287.48 after moving up 417 points or 3.55 per cent Tuesday.

The Nasdaq composite index was up 26.17 points to 2,281.93 after gaining 86 points and the S&P 500 index rose 11.33 points to 1,331.98.

The collapse in the U.S. housing sector has slashed the value of securities backing mortgages and resulted in a credit crisis with banks reluctant to loan to each other.

Investors are still counting on the U.S. Federal Reserve to continue cutting interest rates, although expectations are down somewhat for next week's scheduled announcement on rates.

Investors had been looking for a cut of three quarters of a point but after the central bank moves "it looks like the measures may be enough to push market expectations back towards a 50 basis point cut," said BMO Nesbitt Burns senior economist Jennifer Lee.

"After all, this is another way to ease the credit crunch, instead of reducing the funds rate."

The TSX financial sector was ahead 0.62 per cents as Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) rose 47 cents to $45.55 and TD Bank (TSX: TD) advanced 55 cents to $64.42.

The energy sector moved 1.35 per cent lower as oil prices fell following a report from the U.S. Department of Energy that crude oil supplies jumped by 6.2 million barrels last week. That's more than three times the 1.6 million barrel increase analysts expected.

At late morning, the April crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 97 cents to US$107.78 a barrel after closing at another record high on Tuesday cash advance today. Petro-Canada (TSX: PCA) headed 77 cents lower to $46.28 while Suncor Energy (TSX: SU) fell $2.33 to $104.63.

Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd.'s (TSX: PBG) fourth-quarter profit leaped ahead to $40.1 million from year-earlier $2.6 million on higher oil and natural gas revenue rises. But its shares were down $3.94 to $49.50 as market watchers speculated that investors may have been disappointed the company did not outline any new progress on its patented THAI oilsands technology.

Gold prices were slightly higher with the April bullion contract on the Nymex ahead $1.50 to US$977.50 an ounce. The gold sector was down one per cent with Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM) declined $1.04 to $71.27 while Alamos Gold (TSX: AGI) dropped 86 cents to $6.91.

Shares in tour operator Transat A.T. Inc. (TSX: TRZ.B) were down $2.04 to $24.03 after the company fell to a first-quarter loss of $10.1 million from a year-ago profit of $2 million on a $10.1-million after-tax charge for asset-backed commercial paper.

Revenues amounted to $787.4 million for the quarter, compared with $712.3 million in the same period last year.

Nortel Networks Corp. (TSX: NT) has introduced new optical technology that it says can quadruple network speed, giving carriers more power to meet the Internet's increasingly voracious appetite for more bandwidth. Its shares were ahead 32 cents to $6.95.

Inmet Mining Corp. (TSX: IMN) says workers at its Ok Tedi mine have launched an illegal strike that will lower the miner's 2008 copper production by 85 tonnes and gold production by 330 ounces for each day the strike continues. Inmet shares were off $1.21 to $82.04.

French judicial officials say a new trader at French bank Societe Generale has been taken in for questioning in connection with a multi billion dollar trading scandal. The bank announced in January a lone trader, Jerome Kerviel, made unauthorized trades that cost it nearly US$7 billion. He is being held in a Paris prison while the investigation continues.

Asian and European stocks rose Wednesday on word of the central banks moving to ease pressure on the world's credit markets.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed 1.6 per cent higher at 12,861.13 after rising as much as 3.2 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index pared gains to close 1.9 per cent higher at 23,422.76.

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