Newsmaker of the day: Guy Laliberté + MORE Apr 20th

Some of the most active companies traded Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (15,412.60, up 52.05 points):
Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (TSX:PRE). Oil and gas. Up two cents, or 0.52 per cent, to $3.86 on 9.3 million shares.
Legacy Oil + Gas Inc. (TSX:LEG). Oil and gas. Up 15 cents, or 5.86 per cent, to $2.71 on 5.2 million shares.
MBAC Fertilizer Corp. (TSX:MBC). Fertilizer producer. Down 1.5 cents, or 15 per cent, to 8.5 cents on 4.9 million shares.
Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA). Oil and gas. Up 60 cents, or 3.76 per cent, to $16.55 on 4.2 million shares.
Ram Power, Corp. (TSX:RPG). Utilities. Down half-a-cent, or 33.33 per cent, to one cent on 3.8 million shares.
North American Palladium Ltd. (TSX:PDL). Miner. Unchanged at 5.5 cents on 3.8 million shares.
Companies reporting major news:
Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR). Railway. Up $2.15, or 2.65 per cent, to $83.35 on 1.1 million shares. The country’s largest railway reported after markets closed that net profit increased 13 per cent to $704 million in the first quarter on $3…

THE PROBLEM
Mark Morin, 29, is a Montreal mining engineer who started building his five-figure portfolio with resource stocks back in 2010. When those didn’t perform well, he added several Canadian and U.S. blue-chip stocks as well as some equity mutual funds. His total holdings now include more than 30 investments—including stock in 25 different U.S. and Canadian companies. About 60% of his holdings are in RRSPs and the remainder in TFSAs and non-registered accounts. Just recently, Mark started building a new portfolio with TD’s e-Series funds. “I’m spread too thin,” he says. “I want something simpler and more cost-effective.”
Investment adviser Shannon Dalziel of PWL Capital agrees Mark needs a simpler and more broadly based portfolio for the long term. She advises he reduce his number of holdings and increase his exposure to global markets by investing in low-cost, broadly diversified exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or index mutual funds. Since Mark is already on the right track with the TD e-Series funds in his RRSP, Dalziel suggests he continue along this path and build a full portfolio with these funds in all of his registered and non-registered accounts…

This GIC rate is offered by Oaken Financial and was updated on 2015-03-28. Click on the link above to get more details or apply online.

The Canadian budget and rail earnings are the key events we’re following this week.

(Ryan Remiorz/CP)
Guy Laliberté was never the best poker player. He loved the high stakes, though. There were tournaments the Cirque du Soleil co-founder hosted where a single seat at the table cost $1 million. In televised high-stakes cash games, he might let his opponents off the hook if they had bet over their heads with a losing hand. During online games, however, his opponents weren’t so kind in return. His expensive hobby cost him a tidy sum online—upward of $26 million, according to some poker websites. Then again, losing $26 million is not a massive dent when you’re a billionaire.
More than 30 years after Laliberté was breathing fire and walking on stilts on the streets of Quebec City for spare change, the 55-year-old is selling a majority stake in Cirque du Soleil to the Texas-based private equity firm TPG Capital, reportedly for approximately $1.5 billion. Also part of the buyers’ group, the Chinese investment company Fosum and Quebec pension-fund manager Caisse de dépôt will both have minority stakes in the company…