Roundup: Canadian stock market falls 300 points to 2015 low

Canada's main stock market continued losing Thursday, down over 2 percent, amid a sell-off in Chinese stocks, a weak global energy market and the expectation for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this fall.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's /TSX Composite Index tumbled 299.63 points or 2.13 percent to 13,737.00 points, its lowest since mid-December 2014.

The sell-off came after the Shanghai composite index dropped 3.4 percent overnight on heavy selling of energy and property companies.

New York markets were also solidly in the red, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 358.04 points to 16,990.69, the Nasdaq giving back 141.56 points to close at 4,877.49 and the S&P 500 down 43.88 points at 2,035.73.

Market analysts said the broad-based decline may be tied partly to minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's July 28-29 meeting, out Wednesday, which hinted that the central bank may raise interest rates as early as September.

Other factors were also believed to be at play. The price of oil is hovering just above 40 U.S. dollars a barrel, which is considered to be the level required for many Canadian oil producers to make a profit. The October contract for benchmark closed at 41.32 dollars a barrel Thursday, up five cents from the previous day's close.

A number of sectors beyond the oil patch have also been hit, with only the global gold, materials and metals and mining sectors of the TSX registering gaining on Thursday.

Healthcare, a relatively small sector on the TSX in terms of its weight, was the lead decliner, slipping 4.94 percent, with Valeant Pharmaceuticals sliding 6.7 percent following reports that it is close to buying female Viagra maker Sprout Pharmaceuticals for 1 billion dollars.

Energy stocks were down as Lighstream Resources, shedding 12.5 percent, while Bonavista Energy lost 8 percent.

Gold stocks, on the other hand, bolted higher, mostly on the strength of Oceana Gold, sprinting 6.7 percent, while Yamana Gold jumped 5.4 percent.

Bombardier was the most heavily traded stock, tacking on eight cents, or 6.7 percent, to 1.27 Canadian dollars, on 30.4 million shares.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Thursday morning that 531,700 people drew regular Employment Insurance benefits in June, up 5,200 or 1 percent from May.

The agency also said that wholesale trade rose 1.3 percent in June, more than offsetting the decline in May. In the second quarter of 2015, wholesale sales rose 2.1 percent compared with the first quarter.

The Canadian dollar, commonly known as loonie, went up Thursday to 0.7639 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.7629 U.S. dollar Wednesday. Endit