Canada's main stock index regains momentum on gold sector

Canada's main stock index regained the momentum Wednesday on gold sector. The S&P/TSX composite index rose 12.29 points to close at 13,362.06 on Wednesday, after the Toronto stock market suffered the biggest drop in a single trading day on Tuesday sinceSeptember 13 by decreasing more than 120 points. The TSX gold sector push upwards by 1.2 per cent as traders bought into a segment that is down almost 50 percent year to date as gold prices have also fallen. Among the companies of the gold shares, Barrick Gold Corporation advanced by 0.29 percent to 17.34 Canadian dollars (16.47 U.S. dollars) per share, and Detour Gold Corporation was up 4.01 percent to 3.63 Canadian dollars. The index was also supported by the data that showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week. And in a report, the University of Michigan said that the U.S. consumer sentiment rose more than expected to 75.1 in November from 73.2 in October, which strengthened investors' confidence on U.S. economy prospect. However, the index was still lack of vitality Wednesday, since investors were worried about the risks from the real estate mortgage. Higher prices and an increase in mortgage rates have made home affordability more of a problem for the average Canadian family, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) said. RBC's latest research showed that the affordability of Canadian families deteriorated over the summer, the second consecutive drop in as many quarters. As well, Canadian Real Estate Association' s latest report indicated that the average resale price of a home was about 391,820 Canadian dollars in October, which was 8.5 per cent higher than a year earlier. The International Monetary Fund also warned Wednesday in a report that Canada is exposing itself to risk by insuring mortgages through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and recommends scaling back the federal housing agency. In other sectors performance, the shares of energy, mining and utilities held back the rising-up momentum. The utilities shares stumbled most greatly by 1.22 percent, the energy sector and the mining sector were down 0.34 percent and 0.81 percent individually. In company news, Descartes Systems Group, which operates a global logistics system used by freight carriers, said it expects revenue for its fiscal third quarter will be in a range of 38.5 million U.S. dollars to 38.8 million U.S. dollars versus expectations of 38.43 million U.S. dollars. As for the currency news, Goldman Sachs said loonie, the nick name for Canadian dollar, will fall in 2014. The bank analyzed that after trading in a fairly narrow band between 95 U.S cents and 1.05 U.S. dollars for the past three years, the loonie is to lose some of its value next year. The Canadian dollar handed back 0.46 U.S. cents to 94.40 U.S cents U.S.