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Roundup: Canadian stock market edges up after U.S. central bank's rates announcement

Xinhua, March 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market moved higher slightly on Wednesday as the U.S. central bank hinted that it will not increase interest rates until midyear.

The benchmark Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 63.71 points, or 0.43 percent, to 14,962.24 points.

Seven of the eight major sectors were in the rising streak, except Financials, down 0.32 percent after many banks shares lost ground, which was weighed by the announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) saying that it can no longer remain "patient " about changing rates, an indication that the U.S. central bank may increase its interest rate perhaps as early as June.

Toronto-Dominion Bank slipped 0.22 percent to 54 Canadian dollars (about 43 U.S. dollars) and Royal Bank of Canada dipped 0. 28 percent to 75.95 Canadian dollars.

Although the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has reduced its 2015 and 2016 economic growth forecasts for Canada, the energy sector led TSX market gainers by 2.61 percent.

Suncor Energy Inc. jumped 2.34 percent to 35.93 Canadian dollars; Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. grew 0.32 percent to 37. 74 Canadian dollars.

Meanwhile, another resources group Metals and Mining added 0.68 percent as April gold bullion was up 3.1 U.S. dollars to 1153.3 dollars per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Eldorado Gold Corp. Grew 2.35 percent to 6.09 Canadian dollars and the diversified basic metals giant Teck Resources Ltd. also rallied 3.24 percent to 17.83 Canadian dollars per share.

Health care added 0.48 percent as Extendicare Inc. surged 1.94 percent to 7.36 Canadian dollars.

Among other gainers, Industrials and Utilities advanced 0.09 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported on Wednesday that in January, wholesale sales recorded the largest monthly decline since January 2009, decreasing 3.1 percent to 53.7 billion Canadian dollars, which more than offset the gain in December.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar moved higher to 0. 7955 U.S. dollars on Wednesday, compared with 0. 7827 U.S. dollars on Tuesday. Endite