Canadian stock market moves down over financial shares slump

Canada's main stock market Friday waned slightly when financial shares were weighed after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reaffirmed to maintain accommodative monetary policy.
Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index moved down 20.54 points, or 0.13 percent to 15,535.55 points, as the most heavily weighed sector Financials weighed on the market sentiment.
Although the Fed has been generally expected to keep the current easy monetary policy unchanged until mid-2015, there are still concerns that the U.S. central bank may take action earlier to raise benchmark interest rates. And rising rates are generally considered as a pulling-back factor for equities trading activities.
In response, Financials failed to get support and declined 0.48 percent, the biggest loss among TSX sectors on Friday, as Canada's biggest bank Royal Bank of Canada decreased 1.05 percent to 80.80 Canadian dollars (about 73.83 U.S. dollars), although it reported Friday a record-high net income of 2.38 billion Canadian dollars in the quarter ended July 31, 2014, up 4 percent from a year earlier. And the bank said its diversified businesses will shield from volatility.
Besides, other giant lenders also lost ground with Toronto- Dominion Bank down 0.4 percent to 57.67 Canadian dollars and Bank of Montreal down 0.2 percent to 81.78 Canadian dollars.
Gold shares were still in the negative territory when Barrick Gold slumped 1.04 percent to 19.97 Canadian dollars, and Newmont Mining Corp. lost 0.83 percent to 26.39 Canadian dollars.
The energy sector was down 0.01 percent, almost flat, when Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. was lower 0.3 percent to 46.29 Canadian dollars per share.
However, the info-tech sector grew 0.34 percent as the Canadian smartphone maker Blackberry rallied 0.83 percent to 10.87 Canadian dollars.
And Health-care added 0.42 percent with the drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International jumped 3.06 percent to 128.35 Canadian dollars.
On economic beat, Statistics Canada reported Friday that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.1 percent in the 12 months to July, following a 2.4 percent increase in June. And higher prices for shelter and food contributed the most to the rise in the CPI.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Friday closed flat at 0.9137 U.S. dollar, the same as Thursday, although the U.S. dollar advanced against most major currencies Friday after Yellen' s remarks on Friday.