Roundup: Growth concerns, crude slump drag Toronto stocks lower

Canada's main stock market in Toronto ended lower Monday amid ongoing concerns about risks to the global economy and a renewed drop in the oil prices pushed European equities lower.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 228.59 points, or 1.79 percent, to close at 12,535.40 points. All of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors lost ground.

Oil prices plunged Monday as oversupply concerns dominated the market after a Saudi-Venezuela meeting failed to reach an agreement on actions to boost oil prices.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery moved down 1.2 U.S. dollars to settle at 29.69 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for April delivery decreased 1.18 dollars to close at 32.88 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Overseas, European shares plunged to 16-month lows on Monday. Germany's DAX index at Frankfurt Stock Exchange fell 3.30 percent, while France's CAC 40 dropped 3.20 percent and the FTSE 100 index in London slid 2.71 percent.

Investors were also watching China's foreign exchange reserves that registered a significant drop in January, which was seen as showing stress rather than panic.

"January's drop was less than forecast. There's little sign of the cascading capital flight that would call the sustainability of the country's exchange rate regime into question," said Tom Orlik, Bloomberg's chief Asia economist, in a note sent to Xinhua.

In Monday trading, TSX heavyweight energy and financial stocks retreated broadly, down 2.43 percent and 2.02 percent respectively, offsetting gains among gold miners.

Toronto-based Lake Shore Gold Corp. advanced 5.37 percent, Yamana Gold Inc. gained 10.97 percent, and Vancouver-based B2Gold Corp. rose 4.27 percent.

Statistics Canada said Monday that the total value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities rose 11.3 percent to 6.9 billion Canadian dollars (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) in December, after a 19.9 percent decline the previous month.

Higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta explained the advance, the agency said.

With the Canadian dollar continuing to devalue, more Americans are finally lured northward, but Canadians are still expected to spend twice as much in the United States this year as Americans will here, says a new report.

Americans tourists eager to make the most of their travel dollars will boost spending in Canada to the highest level in over a decade in 2016, according to analysis released Monday by TD Economics.

The TD report says the mini-surge of U.S. travel to Canada is helping Canada's economy. "We see little stopping a continuation of this trend in 2016, providing a modest but welcome tailwind to Canada's economic growth," said Derek Burleton, vice president and deputy chief economist at TD Economics.

But not all those benefits will be felt evenly. The bank says British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick are traditionally the provinces that tend to draw the biggest number of American visitors, so they should be poised to gain this time.

The low loonie is already paying off for many cities in those provinces. Toronto, for instance, reported on Monday that 2015 was a record year for visits by Americans to the city, up 10 percent from a year earlier. "In 2015, both air and land crossings surged, resulting in a record number of American visits," said Tourism Toronto, which added that it is increasing its marketing efforts in the States.

Canada's hard-hit energy-producing regions in the prairies and the east coast, however, will not see much benefit. "The beleaguered oil-producing regions that are struggling under the weight of low crude prices don't appear to be seeing an influx of U.S. visitors," said Burleton.

Looking ahead, the Canadian currency is yet to be stabilized. "It certainly looks for the moment that the loonie has seen its best days and it may be in for another bout of weakness with USD.CAD moving back higher," said Michael J Smith, a Toronto currency expert at AFEX, a global non-bank provider of foreign currency services.

The Canadian dollar was traded lower at 0.7177 U.S. dollar, compared with Friday's closing rate of 0.7190 U.S. dollar. Enditem