(RTTNews.com) - Falling energy prices and weak cues from the global equity markets continued to dent Canadian investors' sentiment Monday morning, pushing the Toronto's main index down near a 8-month low. Traders were also cautious ahead of Tuesday's interest rate decision by the Bank of Canada.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 96.27 points or 0.85 percent to 11,264.93. In early October 2011, the main index closed at a low of 11,177.91.
Financial stocks were under pressure with the Financial Index shedding 1 percent. Royal Bank (RY.TO), TD Bank (TD.TO) and Scotiabank (BNS.TO) were down around 2 percent each.
The price of crude oil was extending losses Monday morning, after shedding over over 8 percent last week to settle near a 8-month low on continued concerns over global demand growth on some soft economic data from the U.S., Europe, and China. Oil prices were also impacted by the more-than-anticipated increase in U.S. crude stockpiles for the previous week, while worries over euro zone debt problems persisted. Crude for July eased $0.05 to $83.18 a barrel.
In the oil patch, Niko Resources (NKO.TO) lost 3 percent. Bonterra Energy (BNE.TO) and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) slipped over 1 percent each.
Meanwhile, Lundin Petroleum (LUP.TO) surged over 7 percent after announcing that it had submitted plan for development and operation of Norwegian Continental Shelf to the Norwegian authorities.
Telecommunications products and services provider TELUS (T.TO) edged down 0.25 percent after it said it will invest $440 million in Montreal and $840 million in Quebec over the next three years to support the deployment of TELUS' 4G LTE wireless network.
The price of gold was moving lower Monday morning even as the U.S. dollar was struggling to sustain recent gains versus a basket of currencies. Gold for August delivery moved down $7.00 to $1,615.10 an ounce.
Among gold plays, Detour Gold (DGC.TO) rose over 3 percent. Colombia focused Continental Gold (CNL.TO) added over 7 percent after announcing operational updates on its Colombia mines.
Telecommunications industry services provider EXFO Inc. (EXF.TO) trimmed its third quarter of fiscal 2012 revenue guidance to $60.0 million compared to previous guidance of $68.0 million to $73.0 million. Analysts expect the company to report revenues of $70.19 million for the third-quarter. Interestingly, the stock rose nearly 2 percent.
In economic news from south of the border, a report from the U.S. Commerce Department revealed that new orders from U.S. factories fell well short of the slight growth predicted by most economists in April. New orders for manufactured goods in April fell by $2.9 billion, a 0.6 percent drop from revised March figures. Furthermore, updated data show that the March decline in new factory orders, initially reported as a 1.5 percent drop from February, was even steeper at a drop of 2.1 percent. Most economists had expected to see factory goods orders rebound to a slight, 0.1 percent growth in April.
from the euro zone, producer prices in euro zone's industrial sector remained unchanged in April, the latest figures from Eurostat showed. The producer price index remained flat month-on-month in April against forecast for a 0.2 percent increase. In March, there was a 0.5 percent rise in overall industrial producer prices. Year-on-year, the index rose 2.6 percent, slower than 2.7 percent rise expected by economists. This followed a 3.5 percent rise in March.
