Canada's main stock market moved down Thursday as Statistics Canada showed that investors were more attracted by the Canadian government bonds in securities transactions in May, on top of concerns about Ukraine crisis.
After a surge of 145 points on Wednesday, the Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index on Thursday gave back 21.86 points, or 0.14 percent, to 15,204.48 points. Most sectors went lower with energy shares leading the fall.
TSX edged up to a record high at 15,269.39 points in the morning trading, driven by the industrial sector, after leading company Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. reported a 48 percent surge in second-quarter profit on Thursday. On the closing bell, its share price jumped 2.27 percent to 202.33 Canadian dollars (about 188.07 U.S. dollars), and the sector was up 0.45 percent, the only gainer in the eight major sectors of TSX.
Market sentiment was weighed after the data released by Statistics Canada Thursday showed that foreign investment in Canadian securities reached 21.4 billion Canadian dollars, the highest level in two years, and investment in government bonds was up to 15.9 billion Canadian dollars, accounting for 74 percent of the foreign investment amount.
Financials moved down 0.23 percent as Manulife Financial Corp. lost 0.86 percent to 21.92 Canadian dollars and Bank of Nova Scotia shrank 0.45 percent to 72.89 Canadian dollars.
However, the energy sector suffered the biggest drop by 1.19 percent with Encana Corp. down 2.92 percent to 22.92 Canadian dollars and Suncor Energy Inc. decreasing 0.98 percent to 44.28 Canadian dollars.
Investors were concerned about Ukraine crisis after a Malaysian airliner was reportedly hit by a missile when it was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, killing all 295 people aboard.
Canada's biggest air liner Air Canada lost 1.9 percent to 9.27 Canadian dollars, while aircraft maker Bombardier Inc. also dropped 0.8 percent to 3.72 Canadian dollars.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar was down to 0.9295 U. S. dollar Thursday from 0.9306 U.S. dollar Wednesday.