Canadian stock market ends mixed on political uncertainty in Portugal, Egypt

The Canadian stock market closed mixed Wednesday as political turmoil in Portugal and Egypt renewed concerns over global economy. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 32.70 points, or 0. 27 percent, to close at 12,145.68, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose 4.19 points, or 0.48 percent, to 881.18. Oil prices were pushed to their highest levels in more than a year on growing uncertainty over the Egypt political crisis. The Egyptian military on Wednesday removed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi from his post by suspending the country's constitution and calling for early presidential and parliamentary elections. The U.S. Energy Department also reported Wednesday that crude oil supplies fell by 10.3 million barrels from the previous week, three times what analysts had expected. Affected by the supply concern, the August contract for crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose above 100 U.S. dollars a barrel for the first time since May last year to hit 101. 21 U.S. dollars a barrel. The energy sector on the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 0.21 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Limited increased 2.34 percent to 30.99 Canadian dollars per share. Telecom sector ended down for a second day Wednesday by losing 0.93 percent. Shares of Canada's biggest wireless companies have been mostly weaker since rumors emerged last week about an American competitor's entry into the domestic industry of Canada. Rogers Communications shed 2 percent to 41.52 Canadian dollars per share. Financial stocks were down 0.39 percent. Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest bank, dropped 0.6 percent to 60.55 Canadian dollars per share. At closing, the Canadian dollar moved up at 0.9508 U.S. dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), compared with 0.9481 U.S. dollars Tuesday.