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TSX drops on commodity weakness, U.S. data

24/11/09

By Ka Yan Ng

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index fell on Tuesday, pulled lower by weakness in energy and metals producers, and weighed down by data showing a slow economic recovery in the United States.

Bank stocks ended mixed after an early rise spurred by a 16 percent jump in Bank of Montreal's quarterly profit. All Big Five bank stocks topped the market's list of risers in the morning but those gains eroded as the market weighed BMO's results against U.S. data that showed slower-than-expected growth.

"Overall I would have thought it would have had a slightly positive bias today, but from Canada's point of view, the commodities have been kind of sloppy all day," said Lex Kerkovius, senior research analyst at McLean & Partners Wealth Management Ltd in Calgary.

"I think people are just pausing here."

The S&P/TSX composite index <.GSPTSE> finished down 84.39 points, or 0.73 percent, at 11,539.63, after opening higher.

Royal Bank of Canada led all heavyweight decliners with a 1.4 percent drop to C$57.37, but Bank of Nova Scotia rose 0.24 percent to C$49.24. Bank of Montreal fell 0.8 percent to C$53.14.

Mining stocks were a key drag even as the price of gold turned higher, but base metals prices were under pressure. Goldcorp was off 2.2 percent at C$45.84, and Barrick Gold was down 1.47 percent to C$45.57.

Oil and gas producers followed the price of crude lower, but Canadian Natural Resources bucked the trend with a 1.4 percent gain to C$71.95.

Along with the third-quarter U.S. growth figures, other U.S. data was more upbeat as house prices in September gained for a fifth straight month and an improvement in consumer morale signaled the anemic recovery was intact.

"I think it just confirms that we're in a slow recovery here. It's good to see a positive but it wasn't as positive as people were expecting," said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier.

Shares of Aeterna Zentaris faded after earlier jumping 16 percent as the biotech company said its uterus cancer treatment met its primary goal in a mid-stage trial. The shares pared gains on doubts about the significance of the data. Aeterna closed up 1.9 percent at C$1.07.

Other active issues included Alimentation Couche-Tard and George Weston , both of which reported a lower quarterly profit.

Couche-Tard gained 4.3 percent to C$20.97, while George Weston finished unchanged at C$59.10.

($1=$1.06 Canadian)

(Editing by Peter Galloway)

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