It's been a rocky week for global stock markets. Like most indices, Japan's Nikkei plunged early in the week and then recovered some of that loss. Same situation for the S&P 500, but with much more mild swings.
Here in Canada, you may not even remember that just a few days ago there were all these fears about the global economy and stock market valuations. The Toronto Stock Exchange is now higher than where it was right before the earthquake hit.
But if that isn't enough proof that investors here aren't scared, just look at the new issues that got done in the past few days. On Thursday Algoma Central Corp. , which operates a fleet of vessels on the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Waterway, launched a $50-million bought deal of convertible bonds, and the deal was actually upsized Friday morning. This for a company that doesn't mine sexy commodities.
On Friday Midway Energy Ltd. also upsized its latest offering of common shares from $25-million to $30-million.
If investors really are so scared, why are they demanding more product than companies initially offer to sell?
Tim Kiladze