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Roundup: Canadian stock market plunges over retreating resources

Xinhua, June 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Thursday suffered a three-digit drop after a consecutive rise for three days, when shares of resources lost ground over slumps in oil and gold prices.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index shed 135.29 points or 0.89 percent to 15,019.39 points, with selloffs across the board.

Energy, metals and mining, the heavily-weighted resources sectors in TSX, dived 1.41 percent and 2.28 percent respectively to lead the decline Thursday as falling oil and gold prices hammered down the trading sentiment.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery moved down 1.64 U.S. dollars to settle at 58 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Encana, a leading company in Canada's oil and gas patch, lost 2. 89 percent to 15.14 Canadian dollars (about 12.11 U.S. dollars), while another giant Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. shrank 3.76 percent to 10.5 Canadian dollars.

Meanwhile, the world's biggest gold producer Barrick plummeted 2.08 percent to 14.63 Canadian dollars, and Yamana Gold Inc. shed 1.79 percent to 4.39 Canadian dollars, after the most active gold contract for August delivery fell 9.7 U.S. dollars, or 0.82 percent, to settle at 1,175.20 dollars per ounce, when a stronger U.S. dollar weighed on gold Thursday.

Financials decreased 0.55 percent when Toronto-Dominion Bank gave back 0.86 percent to 54.43 Canadian dollars per share.

Utilities dropped 2.02 percent as well when the electricity and gas distributor Emera Incorporated tumbled 1.66 percent to 40.88 Canadian dollars.

On the economic front, Western University based in Ontario province revealed Thursday that its Ivey Purchasing Managers Index stood at 62.3 in May, compared with 58.2 in April, and 48.2 in May 2014. The index is an indicator of purchasing activity in Canada and a reading above 50 shows an increase.

With regard to currency, ahead of the latest job data to be released Friday, the Canadian dollar traded lower at 0.7997 U.S. dollar from 0.8030 U.S. dollar on Wednesday, when the greenback was stronger against a basket of major currencies. Endite