Canadian stock market flats over export data
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E-mail Xinhua, July 4, 2014
Canada's main stock market Thursday little changed as the data released by Statistics Canada showed that the country's trade deficit with the world is on a track for a mild recovery.
Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index edged down 2.68 points, or 0.02 percent, to 15,207.11 points, with the selloff in gold and info-tech shares offsetting the gains driven by basic metals and industrial stocks.
Investors were trading cautiously on Thursday after TSX is now up about 12 percent this year. The index was slightly higher in the morning after Statistics Canada showed that Canada's merchandise exports advanced 3.5 percent and imports grew 1.6 percent in May, and as a result, Canada's trade deficit with the world narrowed from 961 million Canadian dollars (about 903 million U.S. dollars) in April to 152 million Canadian dollars.
The traditional sector Industrials closed up 0.43 percent which was pushed up by automobile stocks after the data released by Statistics Canada indicted that motor vehicles and parts led gains in exports in May. Canada's automotive supplier Magna International Inc. advanced 0.81 percent to 116.77 Canadian dollars.
And the minings sector led the gainers by 3.4 percent, setting on a more sustainable growth path following an increase of 3.85 percent on last trading day. Canada's basic metals giant Teck moved up 0.63 percent to 25.56 Canadian dollars, and Lundin Mining Corp. gained 3.61 percent to 6.31 Canadian dollars.
However, the index was weighed as gold shares suffered a loss with S&P/TSX Global Gold Index down 1.23 percent. Most of the leading companies lost ground. The world's biggest gold producer Barrick declined 1.23 percent to 19.33 Canadian dollars, and Goldcorp Inc. plunged 1.85 percent to 29.19 Canadian dollars.
The info-tech sector was down 1.19 percent, after BlackBerry was down 0.88 percent to 11.29 Canadian dollars.
In other sectors performances, the energy sector lost 0.22 percent, while the financial sector added 0.33 percent.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Thursday closed higher to 0.9399 U.S. Dollar, compared with 0.9375 U.S. dollar on Wednesday. Endite
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