Roundup: Canadian stock market ends flat after sharp decline

Canada's main stock market in Toronto ended little changed Tuesday, one day after a sharp decline in global markets triggered by a massive sell-off in China.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/ TSX Composite Index shed 7.01 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 12,920.14 points. Five of the TSX index's eight main sectors ended in positive territories.

The mining stocks and energy companies staged a strong comeback following retreats in early trading amid falling oil prices. The metals/mining sector rose 1.66 percent and energy up 0.59 percent.

Heavyweights included Encana Corp., up 3.65 percent to 7.39 Canadian dollars a share, and Suncor Energy Inc., up 0.34 percent to 35.40 dollars a share.

Air Canada increased 0.10 percent to 9.96 Canadian dollars a share, actively traded on 744,428 shares. The airline has asked the country's top court to overturn a Quebec ruling that would require the airline to keep its maintenance operations in the country.

In its legal filing with the Supreme Court in Ottawa, Air Canada said that the appeal court's ruling "jeopardizes" the main objective of privatizing the formerly government-owned airline -- to create a "viable and competitive company."

Oil prices dropped Tuesday as a strong U.S. dollar makes the greenback-priced crude more expensive and less attractive for buyers holding other currencies. U.S. crude prices were down 1.80 percent at 36.10 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent crude lost 2 percent to 36.49 U.S. dollars a barrel.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that its industrial product price index declined 0.2 percent in November, the fourth consecutive drop, mainly as a result of lower prices for primary non-ferrous metal products such as gold and silver.

The agency's raw materials price index fell 4 percent in the same month, led by lower prices for crude energy products.

While the near-term landscape remains filled with potholes, Canadian equities are expected to post a decent recovery over the 2016-19 period, said a report by Toronto-Dominion Bank released Tuesday.

Canadian equities should outperform U.S. stock returns, benefiting from firming commodity prices, robust U.S. growth and a still-low Canadian dollar, according to the TD report.

"Canada's heavily weighted resource equities market TSX had a fall of 11 percent in 2015, and a healthy growth in Chinese market has a significant traction on it," said Fan Yang, fellowship of Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI).

"Looking forward, debt-ridden Canadian resources companies need more investment from China. And an increasing export market boosted by a lower Canadian dollar is expected to surprise investors in the Toronto market," Yang told Xinhua.

The Canadian dollar was traded further lower at 0.7148 U.S. dollar, compared to Monday's closing at 0.7173 U.S. dollar. Endit