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Canadian market finishes week slightly ahead

Xinhua, December 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's main stock market in Toronto closed the week slightly up as gains in Utilities and Energy stocks outweighed losses from Health Care and Financials.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite gained 33.89 points, or 0.22 percent, to finished the session at 15,252.20 points. Four of the ten sub-sectors moved into positive territory.

Utilities group saw the biggest on the day, rising 1.48 percent as a pair of firms were among the most actively traded stocks on the day. Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. shares rose 2.52 percent to 57.35 Canadian dollars (42.98 U.S. dollars), while Oakville-based Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. jumped 4.19 percent to 38.55 Canadian dollars (28.89 U.S. dollars).

Other groups to end the week on a positive note were and Energy (0.48 percent), Consumer Discretionary (0.32 percent), and Consumer Staples (0.19 percent).

TSX Energy group rose for a second straight day due to optimistic of crude oil supply to be cut by both Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members and non-members. Price of Brent delivered in February advanced 2.01 percent to 55.27 U.S. dollars a barrel.

Shares of Alberta-based energy firms Baytex Energy Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources Limited had the most influence, with respective rises of 0.89 percent and 1.18 percent.

Health Care group was slammed on Friday, slipping 2.86 percent. Pharmaceutical firm ProMetic Life Sciences shares plunged 20.81 percent to 1.56 Canadian dollars (1.17 U.S. dollars) as the stock continues to sink. By volume, nearly 14 million shares of the Laval-based firm were exchanged on the day, making it the seventh most traded stock during the day.

This high volume prompted management to release a statement to Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) that they were not aware of any significant news on the company's operations. Shares of ProMetic has slumped 46.2 percent in the last month.

Other groups to finish the week in the red were Information Technology (0.41 percent), Materials (0.36 percent), Telecommunications (0.36 percent), Financials (0.16 percent), and Industrials (0.10 percent).

TSX Telecommunications Group dipped as industry leader Rogers Communication announced they would scrap the development of their own internet-based television platform, a loss between 475 million and 525 million Canadian dollars (about 356 million and 393 million U.S. dollars).

The Toronto-based company entered into a partnership with U.S. cable company Comcast to use their existing platform, which is expected to be ready by 2018. Shares of the Rogers slipped 0.99 percent to 50.87 Canadian dollars (38.12 U.S. dollars).

Financials group was pushed down by Manulife Financial Corporation shares slipping 1.80 percent to 24.56 Canadian dollars (18.41 U.S. dollars). Meanwhile, Bank of Montreal shares gained 0.31 percent to 96.90 Canadian dollars (72.62 U.S. dollars) despite announcing the intention of compensating clients nearly 50 million Canadian dollars (about 37.5 million U.S. dollars) for excessive fees.

The Canadian dollar inched up 0.0001 to finished the week at 0.7494. Endite