Canadian stocks end week down as energy, health care fall

Canada's main stock market ended the week down for the fourth time in five sessions as losses from the energy, health care and finance sectors weighed in.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index fell 48.46 points, or 0.33 percent, to end the session at 14,785.29 points. Three of the ten sub-sectors in the index were in the negative on the last trading day of the week.

After rising 354.05 points to a 16-month high the week prior, the TSX lost back 137.72 points, or 0.92 percent this week.

A large portion of Friday's loss came from the energy sector, which dropped 1.32 percent on Friday as crude oil prices continued to show volatility. The price for a barrel of Brent in December fell 1.23 percent to 49.75 U.S. dollars in London, the lowest closing rate of the month.

Shares of energy giants Suncor Energy Inc., Encana Corp. and Baytex Energy Corp. fell 0.77 percent, 2.69 percent, and 0.56 percent, respectively.

The health care sector also took a hit, dipping 1.42 percent as Laval-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals shares plunged 7.89 percent to 27.21 Canadian dollars (20.33 U.S. dollars).

Finance was the only other sub-sector to lose ground, dropping 0.42 percent as Bank of Montreal announced an internal restructuring that resulted in the appointment of a new chief operating officer. Shares of Canada's fourth-largest bank fell 1.83 percent to 85.35 Canadian dollars (63.77 U.S. dollars) on Friday.

While seven sub-sectors ended the day ahead, their gains could not outpace the losses. Utilities and Information Technology were among the biggest winners on the day, climbing 0.52 percent and 0.37 percent respectively.

The materials sub-sector, which features miners of gold and other metals, bounced back from two straight losing sessions with a 0.52-percent gain.

Shares of Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold miner, rose 1.51 percent to 22.89 Canadian dollars (17.10 U.S. dollars). Earlier in the week, the Toronto-based firm had discussions with China's Zijin Mining Group Co. and Shandong Gold Mining to sell half of one of their mines in Argentina.

The spot price of gold rose 15.75 U.S. dollars to 1284.25 U.S. dollars an ounce, the highest since the beginning of October.

The Canadian dollar inched up to close at 0.7472 U.S. dollar, compared to Thursday's end-of-date rate of 0.741. XINHUA