Roundup: Canadian stock market edges lower as energy falls

Canada's main stock market in Toronto Tuesday lost ground to fall into the negative territory again as traders took profits from the energy shares after a big jump in the previous session.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/ TSX Composite Index was slightly lower 37.13 points or 0.28 percent to close at 13,280.39 points, as the gains driven by financial and industrial stocks were offset by the weakness in the energy sector.

After a sharp rise of 4.32 percent on Monday, the energy sector trimmed gains by losing 0.79 percent on Tuesday with Encana Corporation down 1.53 percent to 10.94 (about 8.22 U.S. dollars)Canadian dollars.

Investors frowned upon the oversupply in the global crude market after Iran said Tuesday it will export an additional 500,000 barrels of oil a day when international sanctions against the oil-rich country are expected to be lifted.

And Info Tech dropped 0.81 percent when Blackberry plunged 1.5 percent to 9.87 Canadian dollars. The Canadian smart phone maker newly released BlackBerry Priv which adopted the Android operating system for the first time, aiming at creating a mainstream device to support its falling market share.

By contrast, the gainers include Financials, higher 0.47 percent, and Industrials, up 0.37 percent.

Generally, the TSX index was impacted significantly by investors' predictions about the U.S. central bank's interest rate lift.

According to a report released by TD Bank on Tuesday, the U.S. first rate hike is likely to come at the Fed's next meeting on Dec. 16.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Tuesday moved higher to 0.7514 U.S. dollar at 4 O'clock (the Canadian Eastern Daylight Time), when compared with 0.7505 U.S. dollar on Monday. Enditem