Skip to main content

The company’s rise is all the more impressive because Tourmaline is a natural gas producer, and that’s a tough business to be in right now.HENRY ROMERO/Reuters

Energy stocks weighed heavily on the Toronto stock market Thursday as oil prices retreated amid data showing a huge jump in U.S. crude oil supplies.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 59.45 points to 15,153.3. Falling oil helped push the Canadian dollar down 0.75 of a U.S. cent to 79.78 cents.

An early, big decliner was SNC-Lavalin on news that the RCMP has laid fraud and corruption charges against the Montreal-based engineering firm and two of its subsidiaries. The charges follow an investigation into the companies business dealings in Libya, between 2001 and 2011, and allegations that they paid millions of dollars to public officials. SNC says it will plead not guilty and its shares fell $2.61 or six per cent to $41.10

U.S. indexes were lower with the Dow Jones industrials down 75.36 points to 17,954.49, the S&P 500 index declined 6.84 points to 2,092.84 while the Nasdaq slipped 0.81 of a point to 4,905.55.

Markets also focused on the Greek debt drama as the country's new government formally requested a six-month extension of bailout loans. Early indications were it wouldn't find favour with fellow euro zone countries.

German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said that a letter from the new Greek government "is not a substantial proposal for a solution" and added that it amounts to a request "for bridge financing without fulfilling the demands of the (bailout) program."

The TSX energy sector lost 2.6 per cent while March crude fell $2.89 to $49.25 (U.S.) a barrel after the American Petroleum Institute reported that U.S. oil inventories jumped by 14.3 million barrels last week, far higher than the 3.1 million barrel buildup that analysts had expected.

A huge supply/demand imbalance has been responsible for oil prices plunging more than 50 per cent from the highs of mid-2014.

Financials also dragged, down 0.5 per cent with traders cautious ahead of the release of quarterly earnings by major Canadian banks next week.

The gold sector was ahead 1.25 per cent as April gold advanced $13.60 to $1,213.80 an ounce and investors also looked to a raft of earnings from the gold mining sector.

Barrick Gold Corp., citing massive impairment charges on mine projects in Africa and Chile, posted a quarterly net loss of $2.85-billion (U.S.) or $2.45 per share, compared with a net loss of $2.83-billion or US$2.61 per share a year ago. Adjusted net earnings were $174-million or 15 U.S. cents per share, beating estimates of 13.6 cents a share and its shares ran ahead 67 cents to $15.88.

Iamgold gained six cents to $2.96 as the company reported fourth-quarter net earnings attributable to shareholders of $26.7-million or seven cents per share, up from $3.5-million or a penny per share in the same year-earlier period.

Goldcorp. Inc. has written down the value of its Cerro Negro mine in Argentina by $2.3-billion. That item was the main factor behind a $2.4-billion fourth quarter net loss. Goldcorp's adjusted earnings were $55-million or seven cents per share, missing forecasts of 12 cents and its shares faded 30 cents to $28.64.

March copper was unchanged at $2.61 a pound and the base metals sector gained 0.1 per cent.

Interact with The Globe