5 main currencies exchange rates against Canadian dollar

The Canadian stock market closed lower Friday as Canada's unemployment rate stayed unchanged in June while U.S. jobs data came in better than expected. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 31.75 points, or 0. 26 percent, to close at 12134.91, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index decreased 1.35 points, or 0.15 percent, to 884.27. Statistics Canada reported the official unemployment rate of the country remained unchanged at 7.1 percent in June as employers became reluctant to hire after a month of increased hiring in May. The U.S. also released its unemployment figures Friday, with unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 7.6 percent, but employment increasing by 195,000 in June, according to a U.S. government report. Canadian market went lower as investors worried that the strong rise in U.S. jobs data would accelerate the Federal Reserve's move to wind down its monetary stimulus. Five of eight sectors on the main index for the Toronto Stock Exchange were down, with gold stocks losing more than 5 percent to lead decliners. The improving U.S. economic data lessened the appeal of gold as safe-haven asset and pushed bullion prices down. In the Canadian market, Barrick Gold Corp, the world's largest gold miner, fell almost 5 percent to hit its lowest level in about 21 years. Its shares lost 4.83 percent to 14.57 Canadian dollars apiece. The information technology sector was down 0.3 percent. BlackBerry closed 0.7 percent lower to just over 10 Canadian dollars per share. The stock has fallen for four consecutive days since it reported a poor quarter result last Friday. Energy shares stayed unchanged. Suncor Energy was up 0.1 percent at 31.13 Canadian dollars per share, while Canadian Natural Resources fell 0.8 percent to 31.17 Canadian dollars. At the closing, the Canadian dollar moved down to 0.9454 U.S. dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), compared with 0.9508 on Wednesday. There was no currency trading Thursday due to the observance of Independence Day in the U.S..