Toronto's main stock index closed marginally lower on Thursday with most sectors languishing in the red as trading slowed to a crawl ahead of the Christmas holidays. The heavyweight financials group, which has gained in recent sessions, led all but three of the index's main groups lower. Bank of Montreal was the big decliner, down 1.38 percent at C$57.05. Manulife Financial was off 1.15 percent to C$17.21.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 9.50 points, or 0.07 percent, at C$13,371.20. "It's pretty quiet. We're just batting down for the holidays. The US is closed tomorrow, so probably we're going to have the same sort of sleepy day tomorrow," said Levente Mady, market strategist at Union Securities.
Tempering losses was a modest 0.19 percent gain among materials stocks and a 0.05 percent advance in the energy group. Consumer staples was also in positive territory, up 0.17 percent. Fertiliser giant Potash Corp led gains, climbing 1.4 percent to C$145.91. Fellow fertiliser producer Agrium Inc also rose, rising 1.7 percent to C$86.87. Oil and gas shares made some modest headway, with Canadian Natural Resources up 0.5 percent at C$44.60, and Penn West Energy Trust up 1.37 percent at C$24.36. "Oil is up a dollar, so it's not a big surprise energy's doing a little bit better and leading things along with some of the other materials," Mady said. Oil prices surged above $91 a barrel to their highest level in more than two years on Thursday, buoyed by cold weather and depleted stockpiles.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.