TSX LOWER DESPITE CELESTICA'S ADVANCES
TORONTO • The Toronto stock market closed lower Friday amid strong earnings from the tech sector and easing commodity prices as China moves to reform its industrial sector.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 21.24 points to 12,647.9.
Celestica Inc. was a bright spot on the stock market, up 62¢ or 6.34% to $10.40 after the electronics manufacturing company posted a profit of $28 million, or 15¢ per share, up from $23.6 million, or 11¢ per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were 21¢ a share, 4¢ better than analysts expected.
The Canadian dollar was off 0.09 of a cent to US97.34¢.
U.S. indexes were largely listless despite data showing consumer sentiment at a six-year high. The University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index came in at 85.1 for July.
The Dow Jones industrials closed up 3.22 points to 15,558.83, the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.97 points to 3,613.16 and the S&P 500 index added 1.4 points to 1,691.65.
There are concerns an overhaul of China’s industrial sector could cause a sharp slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
Beijing has ordered companies to close factories in 19 industries from steel to glass where overproduction has led to price-cutting wars, affirming its determination to push ahead with a painful makeover of the economy. That move followed weak manufacturing data on Wednesday.
The energy sector led decliners, down about 1% as demand concerns pushed commodities lower. The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 95¢ to US$104.54 a barrel. But energy stocks have found traction over the past month, rising almost 6%. The price for West Texas Intermediate, the North American benchmark, has moved up about 8% this month amid sliding inventory levels in the U.S.
And efforts to improve the flow of crude southward from Cushing, Okla., the major trading hub for oil, has improved the price of Western Canadian Select, a benchmark for the Alberta oilsands.
Canadian Natural Resources fell $1.50 or 4.45% to C$32.20.
September copper fell 8¢ to US$3.11 a pound but the mining sector pushed ahead almost 1% as Teck Resources advanced for a second day following earnings that beat expectations, up 70¢ to C$25.11.
Elsewhere on the earnings front, TransCanada Corp earned $365 million or 52¢ per share in net income attributable to shareholders in the second quarter, up from $272 million or 39¢ per share a year earlier.
Both Toronto and New York indexes have racked up solid gains this month, with the Dow and S&P 500 establishing a string of record highs on positive economic data and earnings.
The Toronto market is back in positive territory for the year as investors bought up mining stocks and insurers led a strong gain in financials as bond yields started to rise in response to speculation about whether the Fed will start to cut back on a key stimulus measure.