TORONTO: Canada's main stock index was little changed on Monday as a peaceful conclusion of the referendum in Crimea drove gains in some sectors, but the perceived easing of tension in the region weighed on the bullion price and sent gold-mining shares lower.
The United States and European Union imposed sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on officials from Russia and Ukraine after Crimea applied to join Russia following the referendum on seceding from Ukraine.
Investors were also encouraged by data that showed the largest gain in US manufacturing output in six months in February and an expansion in factory activity in New York state in March.
Also providing support was a 4.9 percent jump in shares of Bombardier after South Africa's Transnet awarded the plane and train maker part of a contract to supply more than 1,000 trains as part of a $28 billion expansion plan. The contract was shared with General Electric and two Chinese firms.
But a selloff in the gold-mining group robbed the Toronto stock market's benchmark index of any substantial gain. The index is up about 4.5 percent this year.
"Everybody would like to see the market higher, of course, but overall investors have a sense of comfort with where the market is," said Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod. "There still seems to be a fair amount of confidence in the stock market and the economy."
Ketchen said he expects the index to end the year at around the 15,000 mark.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed up 4.23 points, or 0.03 percent, at 14,231.89 on Monday. Eight of its 10 main sectors were higher.
Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, added 0.3 percent, with Toronto-Dominion Bank climbing 0.5 percent to C$51.46.
The surge in Bombardier and some railway gains helped lift the industrials group, which was up 0.9 percent. Canadian National Railway Co rose 1.1 percent to C$62.63.
Gold miners gave up some of their recent gains, dropping 3.3 percent. Goldcorp Inc lost 3 percent to C$30.89, and Barrick Gold Corp fell 2.5 percent to C$22.62.
In other corporate news, Imperial Oil Ltd said Whitecap Resources Inc has agreed to buy some of Imperial's oil and gas properties in Western Canada for about C$855 million ($771.14 million). Whitecap's stock jumped 7 percent to C$12.34, while Imperial shares were up 0.2 percent.
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