Canadian stocks lower on widened trade deficit

Canada's main stock market in Toronto dipped lower on Tuesday as financial issues weighed after the country's trade deficit unexpectedly jumped and exports slumped.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 31.49 points, or 0.24 percent, to close at 13,304.66 points. Six of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors were lower.

Canada's international merchandise trade deficit with the world widened from 628 million Canadian dollars (477 million U.S. dollars) in January to 1.9 billion Canadian dollars in February, according to Statistics Canada.

The agency said Canada's exports fell 5.4 percent to 43.7 billion Canadian dollars in February, after reaching a record high in January. Export prices decreased 3.2 percent and volumes were down 2.2 percent. Imports declined 2.6 percent to 45.6 billion Canadian dollars, as prices were down 1.4 percent and volumes decreased 1.2 percent.

TSX heavyweight banks such as Royal Bank of Canada dropped 0.87 percent to 74.11 Canadian dollars, while Toronto-Dominion Bank slid 0.36 percent to 55.94 Canadian dollars. Manulife Financial declined 1.06 percent to 17.80 Canadian dollars.

Health care stocks rose, as shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. advanced 10.02 percent to 37.77 Canadian dollars after the embattled drug maker said a board committee had found no need for additional accounting restatements.

Among gold issues, Barrick Gold advanced 4.65 percent to 18.46 Canadian dollars and B2Gold Corp. added 1.42 percent to 2.15 Canadian dollars.

The Toronto area's hot housing market continued in March with monthly sales up more than 16 percent year over year, leading to a record first quarter.

Figures released Tuesday by the Toronto Real Estate Board, showed that within the City of Toronto the average price of a detached house sold in March was 1.17 million Canadian dollars, while the average sale price of a semi-detached house during the month was over 817,000 Canadian dollars.

The release of the Toronto housing figures came a day after data out of Vancouver showed that city's real estate market is also red hot.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said residential property sales in March were up 24 percent from February.

The composite benchmark price for all residential properties across Metro Vancouver is 815,000 Canadian dollars, a 23.2 percent hike in one year.

The average price for detached properties soared to above 1.34 million Canadian dollars in the same period, a leap of 27.4 percent.

The Canadian dollar traded lower at 0.7601 U.S. dollar, compared with Monday's closing rate of 0.7650 U.S. dollar. Enditem