Toronto, Sep 24 (IANS): Canada's main stock market plummeted with another triple-digit loss as the ongoing slump in commodities prices shattered the resources sectors.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lowered 107.40 points, or 0.8 percent, to 13,383. 69 points on the closing bell on Wednesday, as all the major sectors in the TSX were in the red except healthcare, which inched up 0.03 percent, Xinhua reported.
The mining sector led the decrease by 3.32 percent, with the copper producer First Quantum Minerals Ltd. going down 4.15 percent to 5.55 Canadian dollars (about $4.16) a share, and the integrated fertiliser Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. dived 4.81 percent to 27.93 Canadian dollars per share.
Meanwhile, the energy plunged 2.24 percent when the light, sweet crude for November delivery dropped $1.88 to settle at $44.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
The Calgary-based Baytex Energy Corp. tumbled 11.63 percent to 4.56 Canadian dollars a share and Crescent Point Energy Corp. also fell 6.36 percent to 15.89 Canadian dollars per share.
The energy sector as a whole had shrunk 44 percent in the past year due to the slump in oil prices.
On the currency front, the Canadian dollar on Wednesday moved down to $0.7492, when compared with $0.7543 on Tuesday.