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Canadian stock market ticks up on mining shares' rally

Xinhua, April 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Friday closed slightly higher as significant gains in metals and mining shares offset the losses from the energy sector.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 15.98 points, or 0.10 percent, to 15,408.33 points, and six of the eight most weighed sectors were in the rising streak.

Energy sector shares inched lower 0.18 percent, with Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. going down 0.39 percent to 12.88 Canadian dollars ( about 10.58 U.S. dollars), although Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said Friday that starting in the second quarter, the positive effects of the oil plunge on the Canadian economy will be more important than the negatives, and "certainly in the second half of the year the (negative) shock should be fully behind us."

Info Tech shares lost 0.67 percent as Open Text Corp., Ontario- based software products and services provider, tumbled 2.45 percent to 67.99 Canadian dollars apiece.

However, Metals and mining sector shares led the advancers by 4. 72 percent Friday and they strengthened nearly 7 percent in this week, when May copper rose 5.4 U.S. cents to 2.748 U.S. dollars per pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Most of the heavyweights in this sector advanced with big jumps, when First Quantum Minerals Ltd. jumped 5.98 percent to 17.54 Canadian dollars a share and Teck Resources Ltd. spiked 6.34 percent to 17.45 Canadian dollars a share.

Gold shares, a subgroup of the metals and mining sector, lost ground over a slump in gold prices as the most active gold contract for June delivery fell 19.3 U.S. dollars, or 1.62 percent, to settle at 1,175.00 U.S. dollars per ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

S&P/TSX Global Gold Index, an important indicator for global gold investment portfolio, shrank 1.28 percent to 161.77 points, as Goldcorp Inc. plunged 2.4 percent to 23.14 Canadian dollars a share, and the world's biggest gold producer Barrick Gold Corp. declined 0.65 percent to 15.24 Canadian dollars a share.

The index's most heavily weighted sector Financials added 0.25 percent, when Royal Bank of Canada moved up 0.16 percent to 80.58 Canadian dollars.

Utilities also inched up 0.51 percent and Healthcare advanced 0. 32 percent, respectively.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar traded lower Friday at 0.8217 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.8233 U.S. dollar Thursday. Endite