Roundup: Canadian stock market closes lower on plunging gold, oil prices

Canada's main stock market in Toronto on Friday failed to resume the winning streak due to weak resources shares after both gold and oil prices dropped sharply.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index was down 56.95 points, or 0.42 percent, to conclude this week's trading at 13,368.24 points, as a slight gain in non-resources stocks was overpowered by a big slump in resources shares.

The mining sector led the fall by 2.65 percent when gold price hit a nearly six-year low over the stronger U.S. dollar, while the energy sector also tumbled 1.44 percent as oil prices plummeted due to the oversupply concern.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the most active gold contract for February delivery lost 13.5 U.S. dollars, or 1.26 percent, to settle at 1,056.2 dollars per ounce, and the light, sweet crude for December delivery moved down 1.33 U.S. dollars to settle at 41.71 dollars a barrel Friday.

And the highly resources-dependent index was dragged lower as the slowdown in China's economy and a potential U.S. Fed interest rate hike aroused investors' concerns in November, with investment funds bidding down oil and base metal prices, according to a commodity prices report released by Scotiabank Friday.

The major losers in TSX Friday included the copper miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd., which dived 6.25 percent to 4.80 Canadian dollars (about 3.59 U.S. dollars) a share, the gold giant Barrick Gold, which shedded 4.34 percent to 9.47 Canadian dollars a share, and the oil and gas provider Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., which dropped 2.84 percent to 31.77 Canadian dollars per share.

By contrast, other sectors were in the green, with Health Care going up 0.45 percent and Utilities higher 0.78 percent.

Investors of the Canada's biggest equities market are waiting for the new guidance from the south of the border since the U.S. central bank's decision whether to lift the interest rate or nor will be clarified next week, when the Fed Chair Yellen will deliver her semi-annual testimony to the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of Congress Thursday.

And domestically, Statistics Canada will release the latest gross domestic product (GDP) data.

"After disappointing in 2015, the economy may once again miss ours and the Bank of Canada's expectations for a pickup in economic growth to 2 percent next year, as the economic consequences from lower oil prices linger," according to a weekly report issued by TD Bank Friday.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Friday lost ground and was traded lower at 0.7478 U.S. dollar at 4 O'clock (the Canadian Eastern Daylight Time), when compared with 0.7519 U.S. dollar Thursday. Enditem