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Roundup: Canadian stock market rebounds on higher oil prices

Xinhua, July 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto edged up slight Tuesday following a big slump in the previous session, as rising oil prices helped boost the trading sentiment.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 63.18 points or 0.44 percent to 14,553.33 points, with six of the eight major sectors in the rising streak.

Oil prices strengthened the energy sector, in spite of the downbeat economic growth data.

The benchmark light, sweet crude oil for August delivery advanced 1.14 U.S. dollars to close at 59.47 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday.

Statistics Canada reported in Tuesday morning that real gross domestic product (GDP) edged down 0.1 percent in April, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, which is worse than expected.

Energy moved up 0.93 percent when most of the oil and gas companies reversed the downturns. Suncor Energy rose 1.81 percent to 34.40 Canadian dollars (about 27.54 U.S. dollars) while Canadian Oil Sands grew 1.2 percent to 10.10 Canadian dollars per share.

Health care logged the biggest increase by 2.84 percent when Canada's biggest drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International gained 1.54 percent to 277.07 Canadian dollars.

Telecom was up 1.07 percent and utilities drifted higher 0.73 percent.

Financials, the most influential sector in TSX, closed lower 0. 07 percent with Royal Bank of Canada down 0.12 percent to 76.38 Canadian dollars apiece, as the Greece debt default is still weighing on the global capital market.

But the financial sector as a whole trimmed losses from a big slump on Monday.

Metals and mining was the biggest loser by 2.3 percent when most of the basic miners plunged. Teck Resources Ltd. dived 3.66 percent to 12.38 Canadian dollars, and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. shrank 3.2 percent to 16.33 Canadian dollars.

On the economic beat, weakness in the mining and oil and gas industries contributed to the retreat of the economic growth in April, according to Statistics Canada on Tuesday.

"In any event, the Bank of Canada's expectation for a 1.8 percent gain in real GDP in the second quarter is unlikely to be met, raising the probability of another Bank of Canada rate cut," Diana Petramala, an economist from TD Bank, said in a report issued on Tuesday.

On the currency front, weighed by the disappointing GDP data, the Canadian dollar Tuesday fell to 0.8006 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.8070 U.S. dollar on Monday, when investors focused on Greece's default risk.

And the market will be closed on Wednesday for Canada Day. Endite