Roundup: Canadian stocks fall as miners weigh, healthcare tanks

Canada's main stock market in Toronto fell elusive on Tuesday as weaker commodity prices weighed on energy and mining stocks, while shares of a major drug maker tanked.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 77.23 points, or 0.57 percent, to close at 13,400.31 points. Six of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors ended lower.

Health care sector was rattled by 11.69 percent, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. plunged 50.71 percent to 45.14 Canadian dollars after it cut its 2016 revenue forecast by about 12 percent and said a delay in filing its annual report could pose a debt default risk.

GeneNews Limited was down 17.30 percent as well to 0.095 Canadian dollar as the Markham, Ontario-based molecular diagnostics company, announced Monday that it intends to sell up to 5 million Canadian dollars (3.8 million U.S. dollars) in common stock through an unbrokered private placement.

TSX metals & mining, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, pared 4.29 percent, as Montreal-based mineral-processing company Orbite Technologies Inc. tumbled 20.0 percent to 0.24 Canadian dollar, while Canada's largest diversified mining company Teck Resources fell 6.22 percent to 9.34 Canadian dollars a share.

Gold fell to its lowest in almost two weeks ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting that is expected to give clues on the pace of future U.S. rate rises, while copper also dipped.

Oil prices dropped too as market expected that global supply exceeded the demand. U.S. WTI for April delivery moved down 84 cents to settle at 36.34 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent crude for May delivery decreased 79 cents to close at 38.74 U.S. dollars a barrel.

Among Canadian energy issues, Niko Resources Ltd. retreated 32.56 percent to 0.29 Canadian dollar per share, but Pengrowth Energy Corporation increased 4.96 percent to 1.27 Canadian dollars and Suncor Energy Inc. was up 2.82 percent to 35.76 Canadian dollars a share. As a group, the energy was fractionally up 0.01 percent.

The Canadian currency was running lower, reflecting both declining commodity prices and uncertainty over how the U.S. Federal Reserve will move Wednesday on interest rates.

David Doyle, a North American economist at McQuarrie Capital Markets Canada, said the loonie has seen a bounce in the past few weeks, but still faces further pressure.

"We continue to think that Canada faces these long-term structural headwinds from elevated consumer debt, stretched residential investment and headwinds to our competitiveness that suggest that the loonie will need to reach fresh all-time lows at some point in the next couple of years," said Doyle.

Internationally, global economies look tepid, despite unprecedented stimulus programs by the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Japan which said it would maintain its massive asset buying program at existing levels.

On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged, but downgraded its assessment of conditions in Japan's economy, citing risks from China's downturn.

The United States is also putting out mixed signals, with retail sales down in January and February, according to data released Tuseday.

The Canadian dollar was traded lower at 0.7484 U.S. dollar, compared with Monday's closing rate of 0.7537 U.S. dollar. Enditem