Canadian stock little changed ahead of Scotland referendum

Canada's main stock was little changed on Thursday amid investors' concern about an independence referendum in Scotland.

Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 6.66 points, or 0.04 percent, to 15465.54 points, with gains driven by financial and telecom shares offsetting a sharp drop in resources stocks.

Investors were eyeing the historic referendum, with first results expected at early hours of Friday local time. Analysts were concerned about the impact on global capital market if Scotland ends more than 300 years of union with the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the market found some support as Statistics Canada reported that foreign investment in Canadian securities has amounted to 21.5 billion Canadian dollars (about 19.64 U.S. dollars) so far this year, with Canadian stock prices up by 12.5 percent in this period.

Financials, TSX's most heavily weighted sector, rose 0.5 percent as the country's biggest lender Royal Bank of Canada climbed 0.79 percent to 83.11 Canadian dollars, and Bank of Montreal added 0.65 percent to 85.42 Canadian dollars.

Among TSX gainers, telecom and utilities rose 0.32 percent and 0.30 percent, respectively.

However, the market sentiment was weighed as gold and energy shares sharply dropped. The energy sector shrank 0.69 percent with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. down 0.51 percent to 45.11 Canadian dollars, and Detour Gold Corp. dived 6.46 percent to 9.26 Canadian dollars per share.

On the currency front, the Canadian dollar Thursday climbed to 0.9135 U.S. dollar from 0.9088 U.S. dollar on Wednesday.