(Adds portfolio manager comment, updates prices to close)
* TSX ends down 57.45 points, or 0.37 percent, at 15,419.49
* Financials sector down 0.8 pct; energy stocks fall 1 pct
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, May 24 Canada’s main stock index lost
ground on Wednesday, weighed by a sharp fall in shares of Bank
of Montreal after it reported disappointing earnings,
with investors also shying away from other major banks ahead of
their quarterly results.
Bank of Montreal fell 3.3 percent to C$91.98 after reporting
profits which were slightly below expectations, hit by a decline
in income in the United States.
“That took the financials down” on fears that other big
banks might also release less rosy earnings, said Paul Gardner,
a portfolio manager at Avenue Investment Management.
The heavyweight sector, which accounts for a third of the
index’s weight, ended 0.8 percent lower.
Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank are all due
to report on Thursday, and all fell between 0.6 percent and 0.8
percent.
Home Capital Group Inc, Canada’s biggest non-bank
lender, lost 2.7 percent to C$8.99 after saying late on Tuesday
it had drawn down an additional C$250 million from a high
interest credit line.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index
settled down 57.45 points, or 0.37 percent, at
15,419.49.
The energy sector fell 1 percent, which Gardner tied to
supply concerns following news earlier this week that Donald
Trump’s White House plans to sell half of the country’s
strategic petroleum reserves.
Overall, decliners outnumbered advancers by a 1.4-to-1
ratio.
The Bank of Canada held interest rates steady as expected,
saying that while economic growth was likely to moderate in the
second quarter, government measures to rein in the housing
market have not yet had a substantial effect.
In comments following its earnings release, a Bank of
Montreal executive said Canada’s fourth-biggest lender was
starting to see signs of a softening in Toronto’s housing
market.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by W Simon and Sandra
Maler)