Roundup: Canadian stock market drifts lower as resources lose ground

Canada's main stock market in Toronto Monday was slightly lower as modest gains in financial shares were offset by losses in resources sectors.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 17.38 points, or 0.11 percent, to 15,152.64 points. The descending commodities prices including copper and oil weighed in the market which opened broadly higher in the morning trading.

Most of non-resources stocks were in the positive territory when financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, was slightly up 0.05 percent. Manulife Financial Corp. gained 0.44 percent to 23.08 Canadian dollars (about 19.06 U.S. dollars) and Toronto-Dominion Bank grew 0.05 percent to 55.62 Canadian dollars.

Utilities rose 0.44 percent as Fortis Inc. increased 0.82 percent to 39.36 Canadian dollars and Emera Incorporated jumped 1. 58 percent to 41.70 Canadian dollars.

However, metals and mining led the decline by shedding 1.55 percent when the basic metals producers First Quantum Minerals Ltd. lost 1.20 percent to 18.04 Canadian dollars and Teck Resources Ltd. slumped 3.60 percent to 17.41 Canadian dollars.

The energy sector dropped 0.95 percent over the falling oil prices on Monday when light, sweet crude for June delivery lost 0. 14 U.S. dollar to settle at 59.25 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. plummeted 2.69 percent to 11.95 Canadian dollars, and Encana Corp. decreased one percent to 16.82 Canadian dollars per share.

Besides, investors were worried about the sluggish crude market when oil output from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which supply a third of world crude oil, was little changed in April, only dropping 1,000 barrels to 31.295 million barrels a day, according to a survey.

Meanwhile, the latest data released from Statistics Canada Monday also showed that inventories of crude oil and equivalent products were up 1.5 percent from the same month a year earlier to 19.1 million cubic metres in February.

Industrials lost 0.38 percent when Canada's biggest railway and aircraft maker Bombardier Inc. shrank 1.14 percent to 2.6 Canadian dollars.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Monday moved lower to 0.8258 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.8271 U.S. dollar on last Friday. Endite