TSX ends lower as energy, banking stocks weigh

Canadian stocks resumed their slide, tumbling for the fourth time in five sessions, as crude prices traded near a six-year low and financial shares slumped.



The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 82.50 points, or 0.6 percent, to 14,195.38 at 9:59 a.m.in Toronto.

“It’s in a very nervous place right now, if it (the price of oil) breaks down a couple more dollars it could be very, very ugly”, said John Kinsey, a portfolio manager at Caldwell Securities.

“We have seen Brent swing up and down over the past two weeks because of a lack of consensus about where oil should go directionally”, BNP Paribas energy commodities strategist Gareth Lewis-Davies said.

September copper shed 3.05 cents to US$2.32 a pound, and the September contract for natural gas fell 7.3 cents to US$2.728 per thousand cubic feet.

Crude slipped after Japan said its economy shrank in the second quarter, while China’s slowing growth is also causing concern.

The global oversupply picture was exacerbated by another weekly jump in U.S. oil rig additions on Friday, hinting at growing production, and news that Oman produced a record-breaking 1 million barrels per day in July.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 67.78 points at 17,545.18, while the S&P 500 advanced 10.90 points to 2,102.44 and the Nasdaq ended the day up 43.46 points at 5,091.70.

Orengo said he expects low oil prices to stick around until the end of 2016.

Iran is expected to increase its oil exports once Western sanctions are lifted after ratification of a recent nuclear deal.

The loonie rose four tenths of a U.S. cent to close at 76.42 cents US.

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