TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index stumbled on Monday morning as gold prices weakened, weighing on the TSX's hefty materials sector, while financials fell ahead of a Bank of Canada rate announcement.
Barrick Gold (ABX.TO), the world's No. 1 gold producer dropped 1.5 percent to C$43.35 and Goldcorp (G.TO) fell 2.3 percent to C$41.47. Bullion prices retreated in part as investors had regained some of their appetite to take on risk.
The generally cautious tone is largely due to broader concerns about the health of the global economic recovery, said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier.
"I think it's just concerns about global growth," said Nakamoto.
"People tend to be cautious on the overall Canadian market because we're so commodity driven," he said.
Weakness in the financial sector also weighed on the index, with Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) down 1.2 percent at C$53.45.
"You've got speculation that the Bank of Canada is raising interest rates. That could be weighing on the financial sector in general," said Bruce Latimer, trader at Dundee Securities.
The Bank of Canada announces its latest interest rate decision on Tuesday. Markets have largely priced in a 25 basis point increase in its key rate to 0.75 percent.
At 10:39 a.m., the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 95.55 points, or 0.83 percent, at 11,474.10 with seven of its 10 main groups lower.
Elsewhere, Onex Corp (OCX.TO), Canada's biggest private equity firm, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are mulling a $4.5 billion bid for British car parts maker Tomkins Plc (TOMK.L). Onex shares were up 0.1 percent at C$25.09.
Bombardier (BBDb.TO) fell 4.9 percent at C$4.51 after it said it has yet to sign up a launch customer for the expected 2013 debut of its C-Series passenger plane.
($1=$1.05 Canadian)
(Reporting by Jennifer Kwan; Editing by Frank McGurty)
