Greek debt meeting cools off stocks
Canada’s benchmark index posted a small loss Friday as mining stocks fell and investors looked to Monday’s meeting at which European finance ministers will discuss approval of a long-awaited Greek bailout.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 27.29 points, or 0.22%, to 12,458.30 but recorded a weekly gain of about 0.55%. The index has advanced in eight of the past nine weeks.
News reports Friday suggested European leaders were optimistic Greece would secure a 130-billion euro ($170-billion Cdn) rescue package to save the country from a disorderly default on its debt. “All eyes are on Greece,” Brian Huen, a managing partner at Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto, told Bloomberg. “It’s obviously getting people nervous. Greece is not the only problem in the EU. You’ve got Portugal, you’ve got Spain, that are potential problems. If you can’t figure one piece of the puzzle out that’s so small, how are you going to figure out those other problems?”
The Canadian dollar gained eight basis points to US$1.0043 US. Gold prices eased down US$2.30 to US$1,724.50 an ounce.
Barrick Gold fell 2.4% to $46.85. The materials sector was also hurt by copper prices that have fallen for six straight sessions, leading copper producer Teck Re
sources to lose 2.87% to $38.31 on Friday.
Oil prices climbed US93¢ to US$103.24 a barrel, nearing highs not seen in eight months, although Canada’s energy subindex was virtually unchanged on the day.
Shares in Fairfax Financial fell 4.31% to $400 after the property and casualty insurer said it had lost $771.5 million, or $38.47 a share in the fourth quarter.
Shares in Enbridge Inc. lost 4.13% to $37.58 — despite a 15% hike in the company’s dividend — after the pipeline giant reported adjusted earnings of 37¢ a share, 2¢ less than analyst estimates.
Shares in Encana slipped into the red toward the end of the trading session, falling 0.89% to $19.91 after the natural gas producer reported its earnings dipped to 6¢ a share from 7¢ a year earlier. Analysts had been calling for earnings of 10¢ a share. Encana also announced that Mitsubishi
Corp. will pay $2.9 billion for a 40% stake in Encana Corp.’s Cutbank Ridge, eight months after Petrochina Co. walked away from a deal for the natural-gas assets.
Keyera Corp. surprised the market with a quarterly loss of 30¢ a share where analysts polled by Bloomberg had been expecting profits of 53¢ a share. Shares in the company, one of Canada’s largest natural-gas midstream businesses, fell 5.63% to $44.75.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 45.79 points, or 0.35%, to 12,949.87 while the Nasdaq composite index edged down 8.07 points, or 0.27%, to 2,951.78.