The Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday suffered its first loss in four days as Barrick Gold Corp.'s stock fell following a takeover offer and oil and gas prices slumped.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 64.70 points, or 0.46%, to 13,907.32, with energy and materials stocks leading the declines. The TSX Venture composite was off 21.59 points, or 0.95%, to 2,260.05.
Barrick Gold announced a "friendly takeover offer" for Equinox Minerals Ltd. for $7.3 billion. It beat the proposed $6.3-billion Chinese takeover bid by Minmetals Resources Ltd., which earlier this month was rejected by Equinox.
The stock of Barrick, the world's biggest gold producer, closed down 6.73% to $49.50 in Toronto. Equinox was up 11.6% to $8.37.
"It might turn out to be a good deal, but I think it's an expensive deal," Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading with ScotiaMcLeod in Toronto, said of Barrick's offer. "(Investors are) not quite sure what Barrick's strategy really is, it would seem to me."
Ketchen attributed most of the market's losses, outside the influence of Barrick's offer for Equinox, to profit-taking following the gains last week.
On the commodities market, crude oil was down US1¢ to US$112.28 a barrel in New York, while natural gas fell US2¢ to US$4.39 per unit. Gold was up US$5.40 to US$1,508.60 an ounce.
The Canadian dollar was down ten basis points to US104.76¢.
Most of the major Canadian gold companies were also down Monday. Goldcorp Inc. was down 1% to $52.54, while Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. fell 3.28% to $62.86.
Looking at some of the weakness in energy, Suncor Energy Inc. was down 0.67% to $42.89, while Encana Corp. dropped 0.58% to $30.82.
U.S. stocks were also down. Companies such as RadioShack Corp. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. cut their profit forecasts, though new-home sales from March were at a better-than-expected annual rate of 300,000, up 11.1% from February.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 26.11 points, or 0.21%, to 12,479.88. The Nasdaq composite index was up 5.72 points, or 0.20%, to 2,825.88.
In terms of stocks of some of the companies that helped drive the negative sentiment, RadioShack was flat at US$15.83, while Kimberly-Clark was down 2.74% to US$64.24. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Markets were closed in Europe for holidays. There were mixed results in Asia with Japanese markets declining but gains in Hong Kong.
