Roundup: Canadian stock market extends gains over central bank's rate cut

Canada's main stock market in Toronto Wednesday climbed higher for a third straight day this week as the Canadian central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate for the second time this year due to the slow-down of Canada' s economy in the recent months.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index was 62.88 points higher, or 0.43 percent to 14,662. 28 points, and most of the heavyweights in the index gained momentum except resources shares.

Bank of Canada, the central bank in this country, announced Wednesday that it is lowering its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 0.5 percent, which is in line with the market' expectations.

Financials, the sector which benefited most from the rate cut, rose 0.7 percent with Toronto-Dominion Bank jumping 1.05 percent to 52.71 Canadian dollars (about 40.80 U.S. dollars), and Manulife Financial Corp. up 1.03 percent to 23.54 Canadian dollars per share.

And the biggest mover was Utilities, up 1.71 percent as the Canadian gas and electricity distributor Fortis rose 2.31 percent to 37.2 Canadian dollars.

Meanwhile, Health Care was up 1.39 percent and Telecom rallied 1.06 percent.

By contrast, resources shares lost ground when oil prices dropped sharply Wednesday. The stocks from the oil-patch waned after Tuesday's rally.

Energy was down 1.25 percent as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. tumbled 1.17 percent to 32.99 Canadian dollars and Athabasca Oil Corp. dropped 1.58 percent to 1.87 Canadian dollars.

Besides, metals and mining, another heavily weighed resource sector in TSX, decreased 1.42 percent when the basic metals provider First Quantum Minerals Ltd. dived 2.5 percent to 15.62 Canadian dollars.

On the economic beat, the equities market was still weighed when Bank of Canada admitted in its interest rate announcement on Wednesday that Canada's real GDP is now projected to have contracted modestly in the first half of the year, resulting in higher excess capacity and additional downward pressure on inflation.

And according to Statistics Canada, the manufacturing sales inched 0.1 percent higher to 49.9 billion Canadian dollars in May, while constant dollar sales fell 0.5 percent, indicating a lower volume of goods sold.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Wednesday dived to 0. 7740 U.S. dollar, when compared with 0.7849 U.S. dollar on Tuesday, following the rate cut by the central bank. Endite