Canadian stock market rises after heavy loss

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-3-15 11:47:22

The Canadian stock market's main index posted small gains on Thursday amid rising commodity prices, following a triple-digit sharp drop the previous session.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 55.80 points, or 0.44 percent, to 12,799.91, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index decreased 2.75 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,112.61.

Compared to what's going on in the Canadian stock market, US indexes continued to have a good day as positive employment news raised hopes that a strong economic rally was in place in the world's largest economy.

Some analysts observed that the Canadian stock market's recent downturn reflected changing market sentiment where investors are moving out of commodity based markets like the Toronto Stock Exchange in favor of more broad based indexes like those in the US

Five of the eight sectors on the Toronto Stock Exchange's main index ended higher.

The energy sector rose 1.4 percent as the April crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange shed early losses following the release of the positive US jobless claims data and grew 63 US cents to 93.15 US dollars a barrel. Oil giant Canadian Natural Resources rose about 4 percent to 33.25 Canadian dollars per share.

The metals and mining sector was up 0.6 percent as May copper gained one US cent to 3.54 US dollars a pound. First Quantum Minerals increased 3.2 percent to 21.83 Canadian dollars per share.

The financial sector, which makes up about a third of the index's weight, was up 0.3 percent, led higher by Royal Bank of Canada, which added 0.2 percent to 61.59 Canadian dollars per share. Bank of Nova Scotia was up 0.1 percent at 60.13 Canadian dollars per share.

At closing, the Canadian dollar moved up to 0.9783 US dollar at 5 pm local time (2200 GMT), compared with 0.9726 US dollar on Wednesday.


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