Toronto's main stock index dropped on Friday as a slide in commodity prices hurt the resource-heavy index and wiped out nearly all the gains recorded earlier in the week. The sharp pullback was headlined by shares of Barrick Gold Corp, which fell 8.7 percent to C$45.10. Goldcorp tumbled 5.9 percent to C$44.66.
The two gold miners and their peers were unloaded as the price of the precious metal fell more than 3 percent after the US dollar rallied on data showing far fewer job losses in the United States than expected. Weighty energy shares were also a drag on the TSX as US crude futures fell 99 cents to settle at $75.47, given the strong greenback.
A higher US dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities like crude more expensive for holders of other currencies and generally pressure prices. Suncor Energy fell 3 percent to C$37.91, while Talisman Energy dropped 1.4 percent to C$18.17. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 125.75 points, or 1.08 percent, at 11,510.80. For the week, the index managed a gain of 0.4 percent.
Still, the drop by the TSX did not trigger much concern, given a pair of advances earlier this week that had lifted the index to its highest level in over 14 months. "I would attribute (the pullback) to buyer fatigue," said Elvis Picardo, an analyst and strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver.
"Investors are really looking for new reasons to push the market higher and today wasn't really a convincing day on that front." Picardo said a good example of buyer fatigue was displayed by shares of Royal Bank of Canada, which dropped 2.6 percent to C$55.98, even after the country's biggest bank reported a quarterly profit that met expectations.
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