Canadian stocks slightly down as crude pares loss

Canada's main stock market in Toronto slightly went down Tuesday as lower commodity prices weighed on energy and mining stocks and crude futures pared losses as gasoline rebounded from earlier drop.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 2.82 point, or 0.02 percent, to close at 14,012.32 points. Three of the TSX index's eight main sub-sectors were lower.

Crude oil had dropped as much as 2 percent earlier as investors took profits on a two-day rally fed by speculation that Britain would not leave the European Union after a referendum Thursday.

The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery lost 52 cents to settle at 48.85 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery decreased 3 cents to close at 50.62 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

TSX energy sector inched up 0.39 percent but metals & mining group was down 0.86 percent as gold plays staged a broad decline.

Canada's largest diversified miner Teck Resources Limited was down 0.57 percent to 15.76 Canadian dollars (12.30 U.S. dollars), while Barrick Gold Corporation slid 3.00 percent to 24.54 Canadian dollars.

Dream Office REIT said it would sell a 50 percent interest in Scotia Plaza, Canada's second-tallest office building in Toronto, to KingSett Capital and AIMCo.

Dream units lost 26 cents, or 1.35 percent, to 18.95 Canadian dollars.

Canaccord Genuity raised the target price Athabasca Oil to 2.25 Canadian dollars from 2.00 Canadian dollars. Athabasca shares gained 4.26 percent to 1.47 Canadian dollars.

Canadian Pacific Railway announced it was expecting second-quarter revenues to fall by 12 percent from a year earlier, besides projecting adjusted diluted earnings per share of approximately 2.00 Canadian dollars.

Canadian Pacific shares tumbled 3.80 Canadian dollars, or 2.33 percent, to 159.30 Canadian dollars.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that spending on new residential construction totalled 4.2 billion Canadian dollars in April, up 8.4 percent from the same month a year earlier.

The Canadian dollar traded lower at 0.7806 U.S. dollar, compared with Monday's closing of 0.7807 U.S. dollar. Endit