Canadian stock market down 100 points with falling oil prices

Canada's main stock market posted a triple-digit decline Thursday as U.S. oil prices slid to new lows, dragging down major shares in mining and energy sectors.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index ended lower 101.13 points, or 0.71 percent to 14, 238.40 points.

Five of the eight most weighed sectors in TSX were in the negative territory, with mining and energy leading the loss, down 3.34 percent and 3.04 percent respectively.

Gold stocks took the brunt of selling fury Thursday, as Asanko Gold collapsed 10.5 percent while B2Gold shed 8.9 percent.

Metals and mining also had a rough time of it, as Sherritt International and HudBay Minerals both slumped 5.8 percent.

Energy stocks faded as Trican Well Services dipped 13.4 percent while Lightstream Resources lost 12.3 percent.

Consumer staples provided some respite from the negative tide, as Cott Corporation climbed 3.7 percent while Metro triumphed 2.8 percent.

Crescent Point Energy was the most heavily traded stock, losing 29 cents, or 1.6 percent, to 17.58 Canadian dollars, on 6.4 million shares.

Statistics Canada reported its new housing price index for June rose 0.3 percent, mostly due to gains in Ontario. This was the third consecutive monthly price increase for the Canada-level index.

Market analysts said investors are dealing with a "malaise" that seems to have gripped the Canadian economy.

Allan Small, senior investment adviser at Holliswealth, pointed to the continuing oil slump, the talk about a potential recession for Canada in the first half of the year and a string of disappointing economic indicators, including mediocre job numbers released last Friday.

"With all of that factored in you have this malaise, give or take one day up and one day down," he said. "There's kind of this feeling that Canada is not doing well."

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average posted a rise of 5.74 points to 17,408.25, the Nasdaq index closed down 10.83 points to 5,033.56 and the S&P 500 fell 2.66 points to 2,083.39.

Earlier this week the Chinese government shocked markets by devaluing its currency, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Small said the devaluation is another blow against the Canadian economy because it makes Canadian raw materials and energy more expensive for Chinese companies.

"Obviously that's a concern because they're the largest commodities and energy importer and that's a huge part of our market," he said.

On commodity markets, the December gold contract fell 8 dollars to 1,115.60 U.S. dollars an ounce, and the September contract for natural gas ended down 14.4 cents at 2.787 dollars per thousand cubic feet.

The September crude contract closed down 1.07 to 42.23 dollars a barrel, its lowest close since March 3, 2009. The price of oil has slid dramatically over the past 13 months from a high above 110 dollars in July 2014.

The Canadian dollar Thursday went down to 0.7658 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.7708 U.S. dollar Wednesday.