Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Subodh Kumar, chief U.S. investment strategist at CIBC World Markets Inc., said he will quit at the end of the month, ending a 31-year career with the brokerage unit of Canada's fifth-largest bank.

Kumar, based in Toronto, said by telephone he is leaving CIBC on Oct. 31 to ``pursue another opportunity.'' He declined to elaborate further or to say who his replacement will be.

Susan McDougall, a spokeswoman at CIBC's parent, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, was not immediately available for comment.

The 53-year-old strategist had a year-end forecast of 11,350 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 1300 for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Both measures are above those forecasts.

Kumar wasn't ranked among the top three U.S. equity strategists in the latest Institutional Investor magazine's money manager survey released on Oct. 17.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hilary Johnson in New York at hjohnson10@bloomberg.net; Michael Tsang in New York at mtsang1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 25, 2006 15:40 EDT