Roundup: Canadian stock market rebounds with energy rally

Canada's main stock market in Toronto fluctuated to close higher Thursday as the market reacted to a positive performance of the Chinese stock market overnight.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 165.62 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 12,336.03 points. All of the index's eight main sectors ended positive.

The index has lost 6 percent in the first two weeks of 2016 as a deep slump in oil prices weighed on the resource-linked market. It evaporated 11 percent in 2015, its worst year since the global financial crisis in 2008.

Market sentiment still focused on the oil price at the moment. The energy stocks got a boost Thursday when the U.S. benchmark crude price climbed back to 31 U.S. dollars a barrel.

The overall energy group rallied 4.30 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Limited advanced 4.77 percent to 25.90 Canadian dollars a share, while Calgary-based Penn West Petroleum Ltd. added 6.33 percent to 0.84 Canadian dollar a share.

"Oil will remain volatile over the next few weeks and at the moment it does still look like momentum will take the price lower," said Michael J. Smith, a Toronto currency expert at AFEX, a global non-bank provider of foreign currency services.

Eldorado Gold Corp fell 4.16 percent to 3.46 Canadian dollars a share. Greece has asked the miner to reverse its decision to halt much of its Greek mining operations and safeguard jobs as a condition for the two parties to continue talks on the country's biggest foreign investment.

With low-running oil prices, Canada's powerhouse Alberta is headed for a second consecutive year of economic contraction, according to ATB Financial's latest outlook, released Thursday.

The western province's economy shrunk by one percent in 2015, according to the report, and a smaller contraction of 0.5 percent is now forecast for 2016. That's quite a change from its previous forecast - issued just three months earlier - in which ATB was projecting economic growth of 1.4 percent for Alberta in 2016.

On the economic slate, Statistics Canada said its New Housing Price Index rose 0.2 percent in November, following a 0.3 percent increase in October. November's gain was mostly due to higher prices in the combined region of Toronto and Oshawa as well as Greater Vancouver.

Meanwhile the Canadian discount is growing. The Canadian dollar sank even further below 70 U.S. cents Thursday as economic uncertainty roils global markets.

As pressure rains down on the Canadian economy, the odds of a rate cut by the central bank next week are growing. Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, is one of those expecting a cut from Bank of Canada's Governor Stephen Poloz.

"There's a lot of concerns that the falling oil price could lead to more layoffs in the oil sector and deepen the recession that we're seeing in the oilpatch, so there is a growing possibility of that, although up until now he's been more content to let the falling loonie do a lot of the stimulus work for him," Cieszynski said.

The Canadian dollar closed at 0.6963 U.S. dollar, compared with Wednesday's closing rate of 0.6971 U.S. dollar. Enditem