Canadian stock market moves lower over central bank's rate decision

Canada's main stock market ended lower Wednesday after Canada's central bank kept the current interest rate unchanged.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 51.01 points or 0.34 percent to 15,082.84 points.

Bank of Canada, the Canadian central bank, announced Wednesday that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 0.75 percent.

Financials, the most weighed sector in TSX, inched down 0.17 percent as the central bank's interest decision was in line with investors' expectation.

Peter Buchanan, senior economist from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, told Xinhua in a previous interview that the central bank unexpectedly cut its overnight target to 0.75 percent from one percent on Jan.21, which may open the door a crack to a potential cut.

And traders were still concerned about the bank's further cut in near future since the oil plunge is weighing on the Canadian economy.

In other sectors performances, the biggest loser was the mining sector, which was down 1.98 percent when Teck Resources Limited dived 4.71 percent to 18.63 Canadian dollars (about 15 U.S. dollars)per share.

And another resource sector Energy edged down 0.27 percent with the oil and gas producer Encana shrinking three percent to 15.2 Canadian dollars.

By comparison, Healthcare and Industrials were the biggest gainers, up 0.64 percent and 0.34 percent respectively.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Wednesday traded higher to 0.8054 U.S. dollar from 0.8006 U.S. dollar on Tuesday. Endite