Toronto stocks fell for a second straight session on Friday as the escalating bidding war for big nickel miner Inco Ltd failed to offset weaker energy and gold-mining issues. The Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX composite index closed down 14.15 points, or 0.1 percent, at 11,944.90. The TSX managed to eke out a gain of 0.07 percent on the week.
"We've seen some profit-taking in a number of energy stocks and that's depressing the TSX," said Elvis Picardo, chief market strategist at Global Securities Corp in Vancouver.
Profit-taking hit energy issues for a second day after news of an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners spurred concerns about a drop in air travel and lower oil demand. Energy shares, which make up about a third of the main TSX index, finished down 0.7 percent, even though US crude futures recovered a bit from Thursday's 3 percent tumble, rising 35 cents to $74.35 a barrel.
Talisman Energy was down 42 Canadian cents, or 2 percent, at C$20.10. Nexen Inc dropped C$1.54, or 2.2 percent, to C$68.11.
"The biggest story is not about the impact that terrorism could have on travel plans, I think the bigger story continues to be the supply and demand imbalance and that really hasn't changed," said Picardo. Gold-mining stocks ended 2.5 percent lower as bullion dropped $1.60 to $644.40 an ounce.
Barrick Gold, the world's biggest producer, led the slide, falling 83 Canadian cents, or 2.3 percent, to C$35.12. Goldcorp fell C$1.00, or 2.9 percent, to C$33.38.
"There's been a slight pullback in energy and that certainly caused gold to pull back as well," said Neil Andrew, a research analyst at Leeward Hedge Funds in Toronto. Shares of base-metal miners, part of the materials subgroup, ended up 1.6 percent, led by Teck Cominco Ltd and Inco Ltd Shares of the two big Canadian miners rose after Brazilian mining giant CVRD said on Friday it would offer C$86 a share in cash for Inco - a bid valued at C$19.9 billion.
CVRD joins zinc giant Teck and US copper miner Phelps Dodge in the battle for Inco.
Inco was up C$2.94, or 3.4 percent, at C$89.08. Teck rose C$2.91, or 3.8 percent, to C$79.10.
"Base metals are certainly coming to the rescue," said Andrew. "Continued strength in metal commodity prices, combined with further M&A activity, certainly suggests that these equities, in many cases, will continue to do well." Overall, half the TSX index's 10 main groups ended lower. Market volume was 223 million shares worth C$4.77 billion. Decliners outpaced advancers 805 to 636. The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed 1.31 points lower, or 0.2 percent, at 676.74.
US stocks fell amid fears of slower economic growth. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 36.34 points, or 0.33 percent, to close at 11,088.03. The Nasdaq composite index fell 14.03 points, or 0.68 percent, to end at 2,057.71. For the week, the Dow was down 1.37 percent and Nasdaq off 1.31 percent.
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