Roundup: Canadian stock market loses ground ahead of GDP data

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Monday inched lower ahead of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP) data due out Tuesday, which will tell whether or not Canada slipped into a "technical recession."

After a lower opening in the morning trade, Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index moved lower 5.95 points, or 0.04 percent, to 13,859.12 points on the closing bell, as the gains from resources shares, which were mainly driven by the rising oil prices, were offset by losses in non-resource sectors.

Statistics Canada will release its GDP figures Tuesday for June and the second quarter, and economists lowered Canada's growth forecasts as the falling oil prices have been weighing on the economy since the beginning of this year.

According to a report released by TD Bank last week, the real GDP of the second quarter is expected to have contracted by 0.8 percent (annualized), marking the second consecutive quarterly decline, which is defined as a "technical recession."

In terms of sectors' performances, Energy, which was up 3.1 percent, was the biggest gainer, as the oil and gas company Encana rallied 5.36 percent to 9.83 Canadian dollars (about 7.47 U.S. dollars) a share, after the West Texas Intermediate for October delivery advanced 3.98 U.S. dollars to settle at 49.2 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday.

Metals and mining, another heavily-weighted resource sector, added 0.29 percent when Lundin Mining Corp. soared 4.68 percent to 4.47 Canadian dollars a share.

However, Utilities plunged 2.7 percent when the gas and electricity distributor Fortis Inc. vapored 4.34 percent to 35.69 Canadian dollars per share.

The most weighed sector Financials lost 0.24 percent with Royal Bank of Canada going down 0.49 percent to 73.34 Canadian dollars a share.

And other losers included Health Care and Industrials, down 0.65 percent and 0.34 percent, respectively.

Investors were still worried about the outlook of commodities market for this year after the recent double-digit correction in China's equity markets and the depreciation of the Chinese currency, the yuan.

"It is important not to over-react to current jitters and remain relatively optimistic about the medium-term outlook for China's energy demand,", said Patricia Mohr, an economist from Scotiabank.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Monday moved higher to 0.7601 U.S. dollar, when compared with 0.7567 U.S. dollar last Friday. Endit