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Roundup: Canadian stock market retreats as oil resumes losing trend

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada's main stock market, retreated Wednesday as the oil prices resumed the losing trend after a four-day consecutive rise.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 67.23 points, or 0.45 percent, to 14,995.65 points.

Energy was dragged down 4.11 percent by the slump in oil prices, over investors' concern about the rising crude inventories, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday in its report that U.S. crude supplies of the week ending Jan. 30 increased 6.3 million barrels to 413.1 million, 55 million barrels more than a year earlier.

As a result, crude prices dropped sharply Wednesday after a 19 percent surge in the last four sessions. Light, sweet crude for March delivery tumbled 4.60 U.S. dollars to settle at 48.45 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery lost 3.75 dollars to close at 54.16 dollars a barrel.

TSX losers with big drops included most Canadian oil producers. Suncor Energy Inc. vapored 5.21 percent to 37.49 Canadian dollars (about 29.84 U.S. dollars), and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. gave back 6.94 percent to 10.60 Canadian dollars following a three-day-in-a row increase.

Meanwhile, another heavily weighed sector Metals and Mining declined 2.67 percent with the basic metals stocks in the negative territory. Teck Resources Ltd. lost 2.12 percent to 17.98 Canadian dollars and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. dropped 3.2 percent to 12. 7 Canadian dollars per share.

Financials was down 0.57 percent when big banks moved down as traders took profit of the previous gains. Royal Bank of Canada declined 0.94 percent to 74.13 Canadian dollars and TD Bank was down 0.45 percent to 52.55 Canadian dollars apiece.

However, the gold miners' shares were in the green over the rising bullion prices. S&P/TSX Global Gold Index, a benchmark of the global gold portfolios, rallied 2.71 percent to 191.86 points Wednesday, as the world's biggest gold producer Barrick jumped 3. 31 percent to 16.22 Canadian dollars and Goldcorp Inc. also gained 2.46 percent to 30.35 Canadian dollars.

Info Tech was the biggest gainer by 1.39 percent on Wednesday when its heavyweight CGI Group Inc. rose 2.18 percent to 50.53 Canadian dollars.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar posted sharp losses of more than 100 basis points on Wednesday to settle at 0.7959 U.S. dollar, from 0.8067 U.S. dollar on Tuesday, as the greenback strengthened against major currencies. Endite