Canadian stock market falls as resources shares slide down

Canada's main stock market was dragged down Tuesday by the resources shares from energy and mining sectors. The benchmark S&P/TSX composite index lost 57.67 points, or 0. 39 percent, to 14,658.02 points. As the most weighed sector in TSX, Financials moved up 0.36 percent, rising for a second trading day and helped push up the index in the midday trading, but the gains were offset by the losses of the resources shares with the energy sector and the mining sector down 0.84 percent and 0.49 percent respectively. Following the second-quarter earnings season of giant banks, the share price of Bank of Nova Scotia was up 1.13 percent to 68. 77 Canadian dollars (about 63.27 U.S. dollars) after it announced strong earnings report with its second-quarter profit rising 14 percent to 1.8 billion Canadian dollars, which is beyond analysts' estimates. "Canadian banking had a strong second quarter with net income of 565 million Canadian dollars driven by good top-line revenue growth," and "international banking had a solid quarter with earnings of 416 million Canadian dollars driven by strong volume growth, particularly in Latin America and Asia," said Brian Porter, Scotiabank President and CEO. Other banks shares also increased with Canada's second largest bank TD up 0.6 percent to 53.93 Canadian dollars and Bank of Montreal up 0.72 percent to 76.8 Canadian dollars. However, gains in the financial sector were not enough to boost the market sentiment. The shares of energy producers declined over the slump in oil price. Canadian Natural Resources lost 1.28 percent to 43.94 Canadian dollars, and Suncor Energy declined 0.95 percent 41.88 Canadian dollars. Meanwhile, the mining companies lost ground as the world's biggest gold producer Barrick plunged 4 percent to 17.3 Canadian dollars and Goldcorp Inc. also vapored 3.98 percent to 25.57 Canadian dollars, after the bullion price Tuesday closed lower with the June gold contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange falling 26.2 U.S. dollars to 1,265.5 U.S. dollars per ounce. The real estate shares were in the red with the leading company Brookfield Asset Management Inc. down 0.35 percent to 48.04 Canadian dollars apiece, as a research report from Royal Bank of Canada showed that it's getting harder and harder for Canadian families to afford a home when house prices continue to rise, especially in some big cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. The Canadian currency Tuesday moved up to its highest level at 0.9227 U.S. dollar in over two weeks in the midday trading and settled at 0.9211 U.S. dollar at 5:00 p.m., stronger than Monday's close of 0.9208 U.S. dollar.