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People walk past the main Sears store in downtown Vancouver.ANDY CLARK

Sears Canada's stock dropped on Wednesday after parent company Sears Holdings Corp. said it would close as many as 120 Kmart and Sears stores in the United States.

A spokesman for Sears Canada said the company would not close any outlets in Canada. Shares were down 7.1 per cent at $10.74 in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

On Tuesday, Sears Holding's stock dropped more than 27 per cent after it said it would close as many as 120 of about 2,200 Kmart and Sears full-line stores, and said sales had slumped in the crucial holiday period. The company owns about 94 per cent of Sears Canada.

"The release that came out yesterday was really about Sears' U.S. operations," said Sears Canada spokesman Vincent Power.

Sears Canada has not announced its holiday performance, but in the last reported quarter sales at established stores, a key measure for retailers, lagged those in the United States.

In the quarter ended Oct. 29, its same-store sales fell 7.8 per cent, compared with a 0.7-per-cent decline at the U.S.

Mr. Power said Sears Canada chief executive officer Calvin McDonald, who took over in June, is leading plans to improve the chain's stores, starting in the first quarter of 2012.

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