Roundup: Canadian stock market hits 5-week low on energy, gold slump

Canada's main stock index tumbled to a five-week low on Monday, as a slump in energy and gold shares and a big sell-off in Blackberry hammered down the market sentiment.

The benchmark Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index shed 98.01 points, or 0.66 percent, to 14,854.49 points, with six of the eight major sectors in the red. It was the lowest level since Feb. 2 when the index settled at 14,900.47 points.

The energy sector slumped 2.41 percent although April crude contract added 0.39 U.S. dollar to 50 dollars per barrel on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Suncor Energy Inc. shed 2.60 percent to 35.95 Canadian dollars (about 28.54 U.S. dollars), and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. dived 6.01 percent to 9.86 Canadian dollars.

And another resources sector Metals and Mining edged down 0.33 percent when its sub sector gold group lost ground when the world' s biggest gold producer Barrick declined 4.7 percent to 13.59 Canadian dollars and Goldcorp gave back 2.46 percent to 23.43 Canadian dollars per share.

Telecom lost 1.96 percent when the telecommunications giant Telus declined 3.11 percent to 42.08 Canadian dollars per share.

Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, slipped 0. 2 percent, when Manulife Financial Corp. shed 0.83 percent to 21. 55 Canadian dollars, and Sun Life Financial Inc. decreased 0.71 percent to 39.37 Canadian dollars.

The TSX index was also dragged down by the sell-off in Blackberry with its share price diving 7.44 percent to 12.44 Canadian dollars after the stock price of Canadian smart-phone maker was downgraded by the U.S. investing bank Goldman Sachs from "neutral" to "sell."

However, the info tech sector posted a modest gain of 0.04 percent in spite of Blackberry's weakness.

Healthcare sector also rose 1.15 percent. Concordia Healthcare Corp., the drugs maker for rare diseases and devices for diabetic patients, announced on Monday that it has entered a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire Swiss pharmaceutical company Covis Pharma commercial assets for 1.2 billion dollars in cash. Its share surged 25.22 percent to 80.34 Canadian dollars.

On the economic front, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp announced on Monday that Canadian housing starts fall sharply in February, the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 156,276 units last month from a downwardly revised 187,025 in January.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar moved up to 0.7939 U. S dollars on Monday, compared with 0.7930 U.S. dollars last Friday. Endite