Roundup: Canadian stock market dives over downbeat GDP data

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Friday concluded this week with a sharp dive as the downbeat gross domestic product (GDP) data shattered most major sectors including financials.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index tumbled 262.71 points, or 1.9 percent, to 13,529.17 points, the lowest settlement nearly one month.

The index dropped sharply when the trading sentiment was hammered down after Statistics Canada reported on Friday that real GDP edged up 0.1 percent in August, following increases of 0.4 percent in June and 0.3 percent in July.

The 0.1-percent gain was weaker than expected, said Leslie Preston, an economist from TD Bank. "Canada's economy may have snapped back into action in the third quarter, but clouds remain over the outlook. The persistent low level of oil prices means that capital spending in the oil patch is likely to decline again in 2016."

As the most heavily-weighed sector, financials declined 1.91 percent, the biggest drop in a single trading day in two months.

Shares of giant banks lost ground when Royal Bank of Canada plunged 2.24 percent to 74.77 Canadian dollars (about 57.18 U.S. dollars) and TD Bank dropped 2.7 percent to 53.68 Canadian dollars per share.

Actually most of Canadian banks are beginning a round of layoffs in Canada, which is being weighed by concerns that the sluggish economic growth lowered the outlook of banks' profit.

TD Bank confirmed last week that it's planning to cut costs by laying off workers both in Canada and the United States. And other banks were reportedly following the suit amid earnings pressure.

Health Care, shrinking 3.75 percent, was the biggest loser by percentage in the eight major sectors in TSX.

Its leading company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. vapored 17.67 percent to 122.04 Canadian dollars, after the embattled drug maker said Friday it will terminate its relationship with Philidor Rx Services, the closely-associated pharmacy that Valeant has used to distribute its products.

Other major losers included utilities and Telecom, lower 1.7 percent and 1.31 percent respectively.

By contrast, metals and mining, the sole gainer in TSX, rebounded sharply by 3.48 percent, after a 7.51-percent dive on Thursday, as the base metals producer First Quantum Minerals Ltd. climbed 4.8 percent to 6.98 Canadian dollars per share.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Friday climbed to 0.7648 U.S. dollar at 4 o'clock (the Canadian Eastern Daylight Time), when compared with 0.7595 U.S. dollar on Thursday. Endit