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Roundup: Canadian stock market falls on soft U.S. economic data

Xinhua, November 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto retreated further on Friday as the U.S. downbeat retail sales data cast a shadow on Canada's economic outlook.

The Canadian biggest equities center in Toronto saw an slump for eight straight sessions, with the Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/ TSX Composite Index down 51.78 points or 0.39 percent to conclude the week at 13,075.40 points, hitting a record low in six weeks.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for October increased 0.1 percent from the previous month to 447.3 billion U.S. dollars, below market expectations, said the U.S. Commerce Department Friday.

"Stocks felt some November pain this week on the growing consensus that the Fed (the U.S. central bank) will indeed begin tightening policy next month, on some soggy retail results and on a renewed deep dive in commodity prices," said Douglas Porter, a chief economist from Bank of Montreal.

The most influential sector financials fell 1.15 percent, following a big drop in the previous day, as investors doubted the outlook of Canada's giant banks amid falling oil, which weighed on their related investments.

Royal Bank of Canada, Canada's biggest lender by market capitalization, plunged 1.36 percent to 73.94 Canadian dollars (about 55.52 U.S. dollars). The second biggest giant Toronto-Dominion also shed 1.24 percent to 53.37 Canadian dollars.

Meanwhile, the mining sector was down 1.52 percent as concerns about an interest rate hike by the Fed next month has weighed on the commodities market.

Some of the Canadian giant miners lost nearly 20 percent since the beginning of November. The copper producer Teck Resources Limited shrank 2.23 percent to 6.13 Canadian dollars, down from 7.56 Canadian dollars per share on Nov. 2.

Health Care rose 2.98 percent on Friday following 1.87-percent gain on Thursday when Canada's biggest drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. rebounded 2.44 percent to 100.53 Canadian dollars apiece.

Other gainers included energy and utilities, up 0.9 percent and 0.16 percent, respectively.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Friday bought 0.7509 U.S. dollar at 4 pm local time, when compared with 0.7529 U.S. dollar on Thursday. Enditem