Canadian stock market rises as Ukraine concerns ease

Canada's main stock market Monday rose as worries over a further escalation of Ukraine tensions diminished, lifting most of the eight major sectors.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index added 34.23 points or 0.22 percent to 15,338.47 points.

Market sentiment was boosted as German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier said early Monday that some progress was made in the "difficult" quadrilateral talks on the Ukraine crisis held during the weekend in Berlin among foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine.

Financials, the most heavily weighed sector, grew 0.35 percent with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce climbing 0.43 percent to 101.76 Canadian dollars (about 93.48 U.S. dollars) and Royal Bank of Canada advancing 0.7 percent to 80.41 Canadian dollars.

Info-tech also gained 0.84 percent. The share price of BlackBerry rallied 1.63 percent to 10.61 Canadian dollars after it announced Monday that it has named Sandeep Chennakeshu to lead a new business unit with innovative technology assets, which is to be called BlackBerry Technology Solutions, or BTS.

The industrial sector, up 0.61 percent, also pushed the index higher with Canadian National Railway Company rising 0.71 percent to 74.70 Canadian dollars.

However, the energy sector dropped 0.42 percent, as a slump in crude oil prices weighed. light, sweet crude for September delivery down 0.94 U.S. dollar to settle at 96.41 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In response, Encana, the Canadian oil and gas providers, tumbled 1.32 percent to 23.16 Canadian dollars and Canadian Natural Resources plunged 1.06 percent to 44.98 Canadian dollars as well.

In corporate news, Manulife Financial appointed Peter Warnes as head of portfolio solutions group, international as it sought to expand its asset allocation capability. The stock price of the financial protection and wealth management provider moved up 0.46 percent to 21.61 Canadian dollars per share.

Artis Real Estate Investment Trust announced its monthly cash distribution on Monday. Its trustees declared its regular monthly cash distribution of 0.09 Canadian dollar per trust unit of Artis for the month of August, 2014. The company's share was slightly higher 0.06 percent to 15.89 Canadian dollars.

On economic slate, Statistics Canada reported Monday that foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities and reduced their holdings of Canadian bonds by 3.9 billion Canadian dollars in June, the first such divestment since January of this year. The reduction focused on Canadian government bonds, both federal and provincial bonds.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Monday edged up to 0. 9186 U.S. dollar, compared with 0.9184 U.S. dollar on last Friday.