Canadian market slips as Health Care and IT stocks dip

Canada's main stock market in Toronto opened the month down as declines in health care and information technology stocks outweighed gains in energy and bank stocks.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index dropped 55.32 points, or 0.37 percent, to finish the day at 15,027.53 points. Six of the ten sub-sectors ended the session in the negative.

Health Care and Information Technology subgroups were hit the hardest during the day, with respective declines of 3.61 percent and 2.08 percent.

The Health Care group, which is made up of four firms saw losses across the board on Thursday. Laval-based drug makers Prometic Life Sciences Inc. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals took the biggest hits, sinking 6.58 percent and 4.10 percent, respectively.

Valeant share prices continued to fade a day after talks between a Japanese company for the sale of their stomach-drug company for 10 billion U.S. dollars ended.

Information Technology's dip was largely due to more than 1.8 million Blackberry Limited shares traded on the day. Stock price of the Waterloo-based phone maker fell 2.90 percent to 10.04 Canadian dollars (7.54 U.S. dollars).

Other sectors on the losing side on Thursday were Consumer Staples (1.71 percent), Materials (1.31 percent), Telecommunications (1.29 percent), and Industrials (0.01 percent).

Conversely, the groups that advanced on the day were Energy (0.77 percent), Consumer Discretionary (0.72 percent), and Financials (0.05 percent).

Energy stocks remained strong a day after Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached an agreement to cut supply of crude oil, as Brent prices reached a 16-month high. A barrel delivered in February jumped 4.21 percent to 53.69 U.S. dollars in London.

Calgary-based Baytex Energy Corp. stock prices rose 3.47 percent to 5.96 Canadian dollars (4.48 U.S. dollars) and were the most actively traded on the day with more than 14.5 million shares exchanged.

Financials inched up as two of Canada's top-five banks released fourth quarter earnings prior to markets opening.

No. 5 ranked Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) stocks rose 0.88 percent to 108.34 Canadian dollars (81.39 U.S. dollars) after net income in Q4 surged to 931 million Canadian dollars (about 699 million U.S. dollars), a 19.7 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, No. 2 ranked Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) shares retreated 0.79 percent to 63.07 Canadian dollars (47.38 U.S. dollars) after adjusted net income in the same quarter rose 7.81 percent to 2.347 billion Canadian dollars (about 1.763 billon U.S. dollars).

The biggest growth during the quarter for TD Bank came south of the border, with a 31.57 percent growth in their U.S. retail division, compared to a minuscule 0.40 percent growth in the Canadian retail division.

The Canadian dollar jumped 0.0067 to 0.7512 U.S. dollars. Endite