Roger Biduk - Bay Street Lower on Volatility

Roger Biduk writes:

The Toronto stock market finished modestly lower Thursday, after a late-day rally that saw investors buy beaten up energy stocks despite a big drop in oil prices below the US$70 mark for the first time in more than a year.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite surged about 100 points, dropped well over 500 points and finished the session down 53.88 points to 9,269.97, after an energy-sector rout sent the main index down 632 points on Wednesday.
The TSX Venture Exchange was off 53.42 points to 937.79, while the Canadian dollar gained 0.45 cent to 84.63 cents U.S.
The rise the loonie followed a Statistics Canada report that manufacturing sales declined 3.7 per cent to $52 billion in August.

The Toronto stock market's energy sector was up two per cent after plunging 12 per cent Wednesday. The November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed down $4.69 at US$69.85, closing below S$70 for the first time since August 2007, as new data showed much higher oil inventories in the U.S. last week.
Oil has lost more than half its value in three months from its July peak of US$147.27.
Canadian Oilsands Trust units ran ahead $2.31 to $24.50 while Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) lost 79 cents to $24.20.

Other commodities were lower with the December copper contract on the Nymex down 12.5 cents to US$2.0855 a pound after Rio Tinto PLC, one of the world's biggest mining giants, warned of slowing demand from China, the world's biggest growth engine over the last few years.
Shares of Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) retreated 36 cents to $15.10.

The volatility extended to the precious metals sector where gold declined $34.50 to US$804.50 an ounce, sending the sector down almost 10 per cent as investors looking for safety dumped gold in favour of cash.
Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) fell back $3.03 to $24.75.
NovaGold Resources Inc. (TSX:NG) faded 83 cents or 17.5 per cent to $3.90 after it reported a record third-quarter profit of $16.7 million on a $33.5-million pre-tax gain from the sale of its NovaGreenPower subsidiary.
Other materials stocks pressuring the TSX included Potash Corp., (TSX:POT) down $5.57 to $87.

The TSX financial sector was down 0.45 per cent, with Manulife Financial (TSX:MFC) down $1.25 to $27.80 while Royal Bank advanced 66 cents to $45.66.

On the TSX, declines beat advances 1,096 to 511 with 195 unchanged as 555 million shares traded worth $7.7 billion.

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