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Roundup: Canadian stock market extends losses as central bank warns financial volatility

Xinhua, March 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market moved lower Thursday for a second trading day amid the Canadian central bank's warning of financial market volatility.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 59.57 points, or 0.40 percent, to 14,869.80 points.

Financials, the most weighed sector, dropped 0.40 percent when Bank of Canada, the central bank, warned that the financial market volatility has increased broadly. Bank of Canada Governor Stephen S. Poloz said Thursday that the recovery from the Great Recession has been slow and uneven, and long-term interest rates are well below the bank's inflation targets.

In a direct response, most of the country's big banks lost ground with Toronto-Dominion Bank slipping 0.52 percent to 53.64 Canadian dollars (about 43.01 U.S. dollars), while Royal Bank of Canada gave back 0.34 percent to 75.79 Canadian dollars per share.

The metals and mining sector lost 0.65 percent when investors' concerns about China's withering demand for commodities still weighed on resource shares. The diversified basic metals producer Teck Resources Ltd. slumped 2.81 percent to 18.01 Canadian dollars.

Other losers included industrials, down 0.22 percent, with its heavyweight Canadian National Railway Company decreasing 0.39 percent to 83.62 Canadian dollars.

However, energy sector was pushed up 0.39 percent by a rise in oil prices, amid geopolitical tensions after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies took military action against its neighbor Yemen.

May crude oil contract jumped 2.22 U.S. dollars to 51.43 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

As a result, Canada's largest energy company, Suncor Energy Inc. rallied 1.08 percent to 36.55 Canadian dollars and Spartan Energy Corp. surged 3.97 percent to 2.88 Canadian dollars.

Info-tech, another gainer, rose 0.82 percent as CGI Group Inc. advanced 1.16 percent to 54.03 Canadian dollars, and Constellation Software Inc. climbed 3 percent to 439.03 Canadian dollars per share.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Thursday that the number of people receiving regular employment insurance benefits totaled 496,600 in January, virtually unchanged from the previous month.

By contrast, Canadians' debt to income ratio hit new high at 163.3 percent, according to the federal agency's report earlier in this month.

As for currency, the Canadian dollar moved higher Thursday to settle at 0.8019 U.S. dollar from 0.7989 U.S. dollar Wednesday. Endite