(Updates throughout with market reaction, analyst comment, new
details)
* TSX down 214.66 points, or 1.49 percent, to 14,200.01
* Nine of the TSX's 10 main groups fell
By Solarina Ho
TORONTO, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index
dropped almost 1.5 percent on Wednesday, tracking markets around
the world hit by the latest move from China that allowed the
yuan to weaken further.
Crude oil prices LCOc1 CLc1 were steady following
Tuesday's rout but still flirted with multi-year lows while base
metals CMCU3 sank to six-year lows on worries that demand from
China, the world's top metals buyer, would wane. MET/L O/R
The resource-heavy Toronto stocks have been hit hard by
negative global sentiment that has battered commodity prices.
"I don't attribute it as much as other people do only to the
Chinese trying to reduce the value of their currency against the
U.S. dollar," said Subodh Kumar, chief investment strategist at
Subodh Kumar & Associates.
"World economic growth has been slowing and markets have
been ignoring that and now they're catching up with reality."
The heavily weighted financial stocks dominated the index's
losses, with Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO among the most
influential decliners. RBC fell 1.8 percent to C$75.24. The
overall financials group retreated 1.7 percent.
At 11:23 a.m. ET (1523 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's
S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 214.66 points, or
1.49 percent, to 14,200.01.
Of the index's 10 main groups, nine were in the red, with
tech, consumer discretionary, health care and industrials all
seeing sharp declines of more than 2 and 3 percent. Declining
issues outnumbered advancing ones on the TSX for a 3.29-to-1
ratio on the downside.
"It's hard to say when sentiment will change. We're
somewhere in the bottoming process," said Kumar, who expects
market sentiment to change toward the end of the year into next
year.
The materials group, home to mining firms, was the lone
gainer, rising 1.3 percent, as strong gold mining shares were
buoyed by the higher price of bullion, a safe-haven. Most of the
index's top gainers were all gold miners.
Goldcorp Inc G.TO advanced 4.0 percent to C$19.74, while
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd AEM.TO surged 7.1 percent to C$33.31.
Gold futures GCc1 rose 1.3 percent to $1,122 an ounce. GOL/
Energy stocks reversed earlier gains to slide 1.3 percent.
Enbridge Inc ENB.TO shares were down 1.1 percent at
C$55.04, hurt by a U.S. Midwest pipeline shutdown following a
small leak late on Tuesday. ID:nL1N10N0X3
Air Canada AC.TO shares fell 6.7 percent to C$12.03 after
Canada's biggest carrier said a closely watched revenue number
declined. ID:nL3N10N3XA