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Roundup: Canadian stock market tumbles on plunge in resources shares

Xinhua, August 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Friday dropped with a three-digital loss with resources shares leading the decrease over the volatility in commodities prices.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 103.21 points, or 0.72 percent, to 14,302.70 points on the closing bell.

Metals and mining dived 2.07 percent when the copper price hit a six-year low Friday, with the three-month copper down to 5,121 U. S. dollars a tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Most shares of miners lost ground when First Quantum Minerals Ltd. dropped 3.5 percent to 9.92 Canadian dollars (about 7.55 U.S. dollars), while Teck Resources Ltd. shrank 3.2 percent to 9.37 Canadian dollars as well.

Harlan Meade, the president and CEO of Copper North Mining Corp. , however, said that the current situation of the commodities slump is not sustainable. "I expect copper price to move sideways to modest improvement over the remainder of the year. By middle of 2016, copper supply should move to shortfall and copper price begin to recover."

Meanwhile, the falling oil price Friday was also weighing on the market sentiment when the energy sector lost 1.86 percent, with Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. nosediving 5.34 percent to 7.09 Canadian dollars per share.

Financial, the most influential sector in TSX, was down 0.85 percent, when most of the big banks were in the red. Royal Bank of Canada declined 0.95 percent to 76.33 Canadian dollars while Toronto-Dominion Bank decreased 0.74 percent to 52.42 Canadian dollars per share.

By contrast, Industrials, the only gainer in TSX Friday, inched up 0.21 percent.

On the economic front, the Canadian employment was little changed in July and the unemployment rate remained at 6.8 percent for the sixth consecutive month.

According to the Western University in London, Ontario, its latest IVEY Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) stood at 52.9 by the end of July, when compared to 55.9 in June, and 54.1 for July 2014.

The PMI is an economic index which measures the month to month variation in economic activity as indicated by a panel of purchasing managers from across Canada. Any figure over 50 indicates expansion and below 50 suggests contraction.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Friday was lower to 0.7614 U.S. dollar, when compared with 0.7629 U.S. dollar Thursday. Endite