Canadian stock market finishes lower, despite US. job boom

Despite upbeat report from the U.S. labor market, the Canadian stock market lost ground for the first time in seven days Friday, and ended in negative territory. The S&P/TSX Composite Index suffered a triple-digit loss and subtracted 119.35 points, or 0.95 percent, to 12,380.41, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index lost 11.26 points, or 0.85 percent, to 1,310.03. The latest payrolls report from the U.S. Labor Department showed U.S. employers added 171,000 jobs in October, exceeding the expected 125,000 jobs by economists. The unemployment rate in the country, however, rose slightly to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent, a result of more Americans searching for work. The department also revised its job figures for August and September, to show an additional 84,000 jobs created during the two months. Financials were among the biggest gainers on Friday, with insurer Manulife Financial adding 1.62 percent to 12.56 Canadian dollars per share, while fellow insurer Sun Life Financial gained 0.8 percent to 25.22 Canadian dollars a share. Canada's second largest bank, TD Bank, was up 0.7 percent to 82.29 Canadian dollars per share. Gold sector continued to decline, with Barrick Gold Corp dropping 3.64 percent to 35.23 Canadian dollars per share, after Thursday's loss of 9.48 percent. The firm's main competitor, Goldcorp, tumbled 5 percent to 42.91 Canadian dollars a share. Other gold miner, Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., fell 6.3 percent to 52. 65 Canadian dollars per share. Energy was also another influential drag on the market, with Imperial Oil shares slipping 0.55 percent to 45.3 Canadian dollars apiece. Energy producer, EnCana Corp, decreased by 2.13 percent to 22.02 Canadian dollars a share. Canadian Natural Resources shed 1. 58 percent to 29.84 Canadian dollars per share. Among mining issues, international miner Inmet Mining Corp shares jumped 6.77 percent to 56.170 Canadian dollars apiece, after posting a higher third-quarter net income growth by 19 percent to 116.2 million Canadian dollars. The firm's total sales improved by 29 percent to 327.2 million Canadian dollars, compared to 253.4 million Canadian dollars last year. Elsewhere in the sector, Teck Resources dropped 1.64 percent to 33.03 Canadian dollars per share. In commodities, gold fell to an eight-week low on the latest U. S. economic data and was at 1,677.80 U.S. dollars an ounce. Copper fell to 3.482 U.S. dollars a pound, while crude oil dropped to 84. 81 U.S. dollars a barrel. In corporate developments, North America's oldest commercial retailer, Hudson's Bay Co., says preliminary results suggest its third-quarter revenues improved by 3.8 percent from the same period last year to 930.4 million Canadian dollars. However, the company also reported shortages in inventory and seasonal clearance markdowns that could affect its profit margins negatively. The company also said it suffered no long-term ill- effects from Hurricane Sandy on its U.S. holdings, and plans to return to the public stock markets. On the economic ledger, Canada's economy showed signs of stalling in October, after two strong hiring months in the job market, Statistics Canada reported Friday. The agency said private sector employment fell by 20,300 in the month, while the economy only added a modest 1,800 jobs; lower than the 5,000 most economists had forecasted. The country's unemployment rate is now holding steady at 7.4 percent. In currency, the Canadian dollar rose to 1.0044 U.S. dollar at closing, 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), compared with 1.0032 on Thursday.