Roundup: Canadian stock market dives as Greece default concern heightens

Canada's main stock market in Toronto suffered a "Black Monday" as an escalation of Greece debt crisis shattered global capital markets and oil prices.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index plunged 317.94 points or 2.15 percent to 14,490.15 points, hitting a nearly half-year low, with all the eight major sectors dropping more than one percent.

Selloffs in big banks shares hammered down the market sentiment, which snapped 2.4 percent in the financial sector, the most heavily weighed group in TSX sectors.

Canada's biggest lenders dropped sharply across the board, when Royal Bank of Canada tumbled 2.29 percent to 76.47 Canadian dollars (about 61.7 U.S. dollars), while Toronto-Dominion Bank shrank 2.34 percent to 53.07 Canadian dollars per share.

The deterioration of Greece debt crisis contributed to the big slump, when the debt-burdened country closed its banks and stock market closed until July 6, after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum on July 5 on whether or not to accept the stringent terms set by international creditors.

Greece will fail to pay a 1.6-billion-euro (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) loan installment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), if there is no agreement reached between Greece and its creditors.

Energy, another influential mover in TSX, shed 2.4 percent when the oil prices lost ground over Greece worries. The benchmark light, sweet crude oil for August delivery declined 1.3 U.S. dollars to close at 58.33 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.

Most of the companies from the oil patch suffered losses with Suncor Energy down 1.69 percent to 33.79 Canadian dollars, and Canadian Oil Sands lower 2.16 percent to 9.98 Canadian dollars apiece.

Other losers included the mining sector and the industrial sector, down 1.16 percent and 1.43 percent respectively.

In corporate news, Bombardier announced Monday that it secured a contract to provide 162 MOVIA Vehicles to India's Delhi Metro, which is valued at approximately 228 million U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, Chinese train maker CRRC Corp Ltd. said on Monday it does not have plan to purchase Bombardier railway business. The Canadians aircraft and railway maker plummeted 2.49 percent to 2. 35 Canadian dollars in its stock price.

Iamgold Corporation lost 3.73 percent to 2.58 Canadian dollars per share after the Canadian miner has cut its gold production forecast for the year on Monday in its latest production guidance report, saying that its production in the second quarter is expected to be slightly below the production of 208,000 ounces in the first quarter.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported on Monday that the Industrial Product Price Index increased 0.5 percent in May, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.

Market attention shifts to the move of the U.S. Federal Reserve, with investor anxious to see whether uncertainties surrounding Greek debt crisis could reduce the likelihood of a September rate hike, according to a report issued by TD Bank on Monday.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Monday was lower to 0.8070 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.8120 U.S. dollar on last Friday. Endite