Toronto stock market falls, miners sell off amid plunging copper prices
Posted March 11, 2014 8:20 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – The Toronto Stock Exchange closed lower, dragged down by base metal miners as worries about Chinese growth slammed copper prices for a third day, leaving the metal at its lowest level in almost four years.
The S&P/TSX composite index declined 34.83 points to 14,267.23.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.01 of a cent to 90.07 cents US.
New York’s Dow Jones industrials fell 67.43 points to 16,351.25, the Nasdaq dropped 27.26 points to 4,307.19 and the S&P 500 index declined 9.54 points to 1,867.63.
The TSX energy and base metal sectors continued to lose ground amid concerns about Chinese growth after data released over the weekend showed that exports of the world’s second-biggest economy fell by an unexpectedly large 18 per cent in February. The country’s official 2014 economic growth target of 7.5 per cent assumes trade also will grow by 7.5 per cent.
Copper, widely viewed as a proxy for the global economy, dropped another eight cents to US$2.95 a pound, its lowest close since June, 2010 after shedding six per cent over the previous two sessions.
