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Roundup: Canadian stock market slides over slump in resources shares

Xinhua, March 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market ended lower Friday as the weakness in resources shares dragged down the market.

The benchmark Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index lost 57.38 points, or 0.39 percent, to 14,812.42 points, a third decline in a row this week.

The selloff in heavily-weighed resources shares in TSX was the major contributor to the slump on the closing bell, with energy stocks leading the losers by 0.91 percent due to falling oil prices.

Although the military conflicts in Yemen boosted a sharp rise in oil prices in mid-week, Friday witnessed a downturn of the crude market when U.S. crude supplies increased 8.2 million barrels to 466.7 million, 84.2 million barrels more than a year earlier. Light, sweet crude for May delivery lost 2.56 U.S. dollars to settle at 48.87 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Most of the Canadian oil and gas producers suffered losses in their stocks, when Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. lost 1.05 percent to 38.67 Canadian dollars (about 30.70 U.S. dollars) and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. lost 0.71 percent to 9.84 Canadian dollars per share.

Metals and mining, another resources group in TSX, was down 0. 75 percent as leading company Teck Resources nose-dived 3 percent to 17.47 Canadian dollars.

Gold producer Yamana Gold Inc. shed 1.43 percent to 4.81 Canadian dollars as April gold bullion contract shank 5 U.S. dollars to 1,199.80 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Financials, the most weighed sector, plunged 0.85 percent, when Canada's biggest lender Royal Bank of Canada retreated 0.92 percent to 75.09 Canadian dollars.

Analysts believed that the volatility in financial shares in TSX may continue weighing on the trading sentiment next week, after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Friday that the gradual tightening in monetary policy will likely be warranted.

Healthcare stocks, however, rallied 0.58 percent as Catamaran Corp. increased 0.86 percent to 60.84 Canadian dollars.

Info-tech also rose 0.50 percent as the Canadian smart-phone maker BlackBerry Ltd. reported its quarterly net income for the quarter was 28 million Canadian dollars compared with a loss of 423 million Canadian dollars a year earlier. Its share hiked 2.76 percent to 11.92 Canadian dollars.

In other corporate news, Canada's biggest railway and aircraft maker Bombardier Inc. said Friday that its CSeries aircraft will begin carrying commercial passengers until early 2016. Its stock price fell 0.4 percent to 2.5 Canadian dollars.

As for currency, the Canadian dollar moved lower Friday to settle at 0.7937 U.S. dollar compared with 0.8019 U.S. dollar Thursday. Endite