Canadian shares surrendered early gains on Wednesday as a renewed drop in crude prices hurt energy producers once again.
The resource-heavy benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index (TSE:OSPTX) skidded 0.2% to 13,450.44 at 12:30 p.m. in Toronto. More than two shares declined for every issue that advanced as half of the ten share groups, including the heavy-weight sectors of energy, materials and financials, were in the negative territory.
The energy sector was the largest laggard with a 3% slump as oil, Canada’s largest export, fell 4%. Suncor Energy (TSE:SU), Canada's largest oil sands producer, declined 2.8% to C$34.74. Enbridge (TSE:ENB), Canada's largest pipeline company, decreased 1.4% to C$52.03.
Brent crude for October eased 3% to $48.05 a barrel. U.S. crude for October was down 4.25% to $43.48 a barrel.
The materials sub-index, which includes mining shares, surrendered 0.5% as gold snaps a 4-day rally. Goldcorp (TSE:G), Canada’s largest gold miner by market value, added 0.4% to C$18.25. Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX), Canada’s second-largest gold miner, inched down 0.6% to C$8.84.
Spot gold was down 0.4% at $1,135.51 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures for December delivery were down $4.80 an ounce at $1,135.00.
Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, edged down 0.1%. Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY), which has the heaviest weighting in the index, decreased 0.3% to $71.14. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSE:TD), the second-largest bank by market value, advanced 0.3% to C$51.39.
Laurentian Bank of Canada (TSE:LB) fluctuated and was last trading lower 0.6% at C$47.99. The bank reported a 10% increase in its third-quarter profit and said adjusted earnings climbed to C$1.48 a share from C$1.35. Results were better than the C$1.43-a-share analysts were expecting.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (TSE:VRX) rose 1.3% to C$299.91. Canada’s largest drug-maker agreed to buy Synergetics USA, a precision surgical-device supplier, for at least C$166.2 million.
Sears Canada (TSE:SCC) rose 0.5% to C$8.21 after the struggling department-store chain, swung to profit in its fiscal second quarter, buoyed by a gain related to property sales.