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Roundup: Canadian stock market flat ahead of Fed statement

Xinhua, April 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto eked out a modest gain Tuesday as financial shares stayed in the positive territory ahead of the announcement of the U.S. Federal Reserve on its monetary policy.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index inched higher 1.99 points, or 0.01 percent, to 15,346.07 points.

Six of the eight major sectors including energy posted losses, while the most heavily weighed sector financials gained 0.25 percent.

A spate of soft U.S. economic data kept high market expectations that the U.S. central bank, which kicked off Tuesday its two-day monetary policy, will keep interest rates near zero for the next several months, injecting some momentum into banks and insurance companies.

Canada's biggest lender Royal Bank of Canada added 0.27 percent to 80.90 Canadian dollars (about 67.25 U.S. dollars) while Sun Life Financial Inc. rose 0.38 percent to 39.48 Canadian dollars per share.

Energy shed 0.8 percent after oil prices stabilized Tuesday as market awaited U.S. crude inventories data to be released Wednesday.

Suncor Energy Inc. lost 0.35 percent to 39.71 Canadian dollars and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. plunged 3.02 percent 12.22 Canadian dollars.

In other losers, Industrials lost 0.38 percent when Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. declined 0.79 percent to 234.55 Canadian dollars apiece.

Health care and info tech was down 0.35 percent and 0.31 percent respectively.

Metals and mining, another gainer, was up 0.02 percent when the gold contract for June delivery rose 10.7 U.S. dollars, or 0.89 percent, to settle at 1,213.90 dollars per ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The world's biggest gold producer Barrick jumped 3.03 percent to 15.99 Canadian dollars.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that Canada's real gross domestic product (GDP) by industry rose 2.4 percent in 2014, with Alberta leading all provinces by growing 4.4 percent.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar traded higher Tuesday at 0.8313 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.8264 U.S. dollar on Monday. Endite